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For the men of 30AU
Keeping the memories alive and relevant.
Clippings.
Roll of Honour
Courtesy of Dave Roberts of 'Living History'
Patrick Martin-Smith
I have attached the obit for Patrick Martin-Smith which was printed in January 1995. As I said previously at that point we knew nothing about dads wartime roles other than that he was awarded the Military Medal. He was particularly proud of this as the uncle he was named after had also won the same decoration during WW1. All we knew was that he had served with a unit called 30 commando.
I asked him about the mission that is highlighted and if he knew anything about it. He then proceeded to tell me exactly what had happened as the obit doesn’t do it justice.
It was a 4 man team and they actually parachuted into Austria to bring back a German general who was “apparently” wishing to defect to the allies. For some reason that he did not elaborate on the mission was unsuccessful so I asked him “how the hell did you get back from Austria?” We walked was the reply. “how did you get over the Alps” I asked in awe. He replied “it took a couple of months”.
After this he started to open up a bit about the activities of the “special engineering unit”. He was frequently paired up with Johnny Ramensky. I don’t know if this was because they were both from Glasgow or just by chance but they became friends often meeting up at football matches as they both supported the same team. I also met with “gentle Johnny” on a few occasions and found him an extremely interesting character. Some of his tales about missions with Johnny verge on the absurd but I have no reason to doubt their veracity.
He also spoke of his high regard for the Yugoslav partisans who they worked a lot with. Unfortunately there is no mention of any of this at the Public Records Office, it seems that as far as they are concerned the special engineering unit didn’t exist, at least not in the guise that we know they did. Perhaps one day it will be possible to get info on the army unit post 1943 as it seems to dry up at that point.
Kind regards and stay safe,
Tommy Gallacher
I asked him about the mission that is highlighted and if he knew anything about it. He then proceeded to tell me exactly what had happened as the obit doesn’t do it justice.
It was a 4 man team and they actually parachuted into Austria to bring back a German general who was “apparently” wishing to defect to the allies. For some reason that he did not elaborate on the mission was unsuccessful so I asked him “how the hell did you get back from Austria?” We walked was the reply. “how did you get over the Alps” I asked in awe. He replied “it took a couple of months”.
After this he started to open up a bit about the activities of the “special engineering unit”. He was frequently paired up with Johnny Ramensky. I don’t know if this was because they were both from Glasgow or just by chance but they became friends often meeting up at football matches as they both supported the same team. I also met with “gentle Johnny” on a few occasions and found him an extremely interesting character. Some of his tales about missions with Johnny verge on the absurd but I have no reason to doubt their veracity.
He also spoke of his high regard for the Yugoslav partisans who they worked a lot with. Unfortunately there is no mention of any of this at the Public Records Office, it seems that as far as they are concerned the special engineering unit didn’t exist, at least not in the guise that we know they did. Perhaps one day it will be possible to get info on the army unit post 1943 as it seems to dry up at that point.
Kind regards and stay safe,
Tommy Gallacher
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sharp@littlehampton-tc.gov.uk_20100624_1
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