Ted 'Eddy' Stuart. No.5 Commando & Military Mission 204

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 05/04/2013 18:33:38

Neil Stuart has sent in the following photo and information about his father Ted 'Eddy' Stuart. It was Neill who originally sent in some details about the No.5 Commando troop photo circ 1942. I will attach a copy of the actual handwritten names to the picture on the forum link to it below.

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/0/1175.page

I will also add Neil's father's picture to the gallery soon. I have asked Neil to provide copies of his father's memory of his time in Mission 204 mentioned below

A quick bit about my dad Ted Stuart (though it seems he was known as Eddie when he first joined up):
He joined the DLI up in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (which is where he was from) in September 1937. He was only sixteen so lied about his age. He went to France after war broke out with the 2nd Battalion. He got wounded in the lead up to the Dunkirk evacuation so avoided the fate that so many of his comrades experienced.
Once he had recuperated from his wound I suspect he volunteered for what was to become No5 Commnado. He seems to have been with No 5 Special Service Battalion up in Scotland in February/March 1941. And he was obviously down south in time to be part of the photograph.
The only thing I know about his Commando experience was that in 1942 he volunteered to go on an unknown mission which was Military Mission 204. Like many men of his generation my Dad rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, especially the fighting. But at the age of almost 70 he did a GCSE English course and as part of this wrote about his experiences of the early part of this mission. He never got to do what he was initially sent to. He got nabbed by Orde Wingate but then contracted first malaria then two bouts of dyssentry, the second which nearly killed him. After recuperating he was sent back to England about mid-1943. I am not sure if he remained with the Commandos then. There is a photo of him which looks to me like he was attached to a Scots regiment towards the end of WWII. If there are any people who might be interested in my Dad's account of his experience of Military Mission 204 (or how it didn't happen as planned!) I am quite happy to scan his essay and send it to you or them. Of course it was written about 50 years after the event.
One thing he does mention in his account is a reference to "his old Troop skipper, Captain Bill Manford". I think this might be the person in the photograph whose name I read as Munford. Anyway at the start of 1943 he got my Dad transferred to the Eastern Warfare School at Lake Karakvasla. Unfortunately on his arrival there my Dad went down with his second bout of dyssentry.

Further to Neil's information regarding his father, Ted Stuart, volunteering to go on an unknown mission with Military Mission 204 in 1942, I have discovered that he was not alone in volunteering...

In 1942 Capt Bill Manford, 4 Troop, No5 Cdo volunteered for the Military Mission along with a number of other commandos from 4 Troop:

Capt Bill Manford
Lt Gerry Haslam
Sgt Harry Simmonds (promoted WO1)
??? Blair (batman to Capt Manford)
Ted Stuart
Sammy Little
Dave Syme
Taffy Price
??? Taylor
George Spragg
Jimmy Mutch
Smudger Smith.

Nick

Neil has also supplied a copy of his father's memories of Mission 204. This has been placed in the Mission 204 album located in the "WW2 - The Campaign in Burma and South East Asia gallery".

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/WW2/Burma/Mission+204/

Just to remind others there is bit more information on Mission 204 on this forum message:

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/1370.page

Another Commando from No5 who joined Mission 204 was Eugene Breslin, 2 Troop.

nick

The Eastern Warfare School was an SOE Establishment, there seems to have been very strong links between the Commandos and SOE

Hi Jedburgh,

Jedburgh22 wrote:The Eastern Warfare School was an SOE Establishment, there seems to have been very strong links between the Commandos and SOE

Yes there were very strong links between the two - many commandos were selected to carry out temporary 'work' for the SOE, both in Europe and the Far East, and a lot of information about the operations still has not been released.

Nick

It seems that Mission 204 was a double edged sword - part of the mission was to provide instructor cadres for 10 Chinese Guerrilla Companies that were operating against the Japanese, it was this mission that many of the Btitish and Australians were recruited for. The other edge of the sword was to provide a logistics support system for arms going overland to China on the Burma Road and to build a series of airstrips for trhe roads protection and to act as emergency fields for planes flying the hump. As the Mission had been thought up prior to Pearl Harbour and the Japanese invasion of Burma post invasion the role changed - Mike Calvert formed a Burma Commando (I believe there were two the second commanded by George Musgrave of Jedburgh fame) and they operated as raiders and on riverine operations against the Japanese advance. Part of the 'cover' of the Bush warfare school was Commando Reaining howver the fact that that cover had not been passed on to the Command Staff caused some confusion and recrimination.

Although not related to No.5 Commando one man who volunteered for Military Mission 204 was Robert Blair Mayne, David Stirling however convinced him his future lay with with his proposed L Detachment. One can only wonder what the outcome would have been if he had taken the former.
Regards,
Alan Orton