[Extracted with thanks from Jane Staniland’s research report: “War Memorial, Holywell-cum-Needingworth: The men who died in the Second World War 1939-1945”]
In Memory of TERENCE RAYNER Private 14746054 The Hallamshire Bn., York and Lancaster Regiment who died on Friday, 13th April 1945. Age 19.
Cemetery: Grave Reference /Panel Number: ARNHEM OOSTERBEEK WAR CEMETERY, Netherlands 7. A. 9.
On the 17th September 1944, the British 1st Airborne Division began landing West of Arnhem in order to capture and hold the bridges over the River Rhine as part of ‘Operation Market Garden’. A costly battle ensued, which nine days later lead to the remnants of this Division being withdrawn back across the Rhine. After the war, this site was chosen for the burial of casualties from this period and those of later battles in this area. Special memorials have been erected to a soldier from the United Kingdom believed to be buried in the cemetery, and an officer belonging to the 1st Airborne Division who died a prisoner of war, and was buried in Lingen Cemetery, Germany, but whose grave could not be found. In addition there are 70 Foreign National graves. The majority of these are Poles, soldiers of the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade who also landed at Arnhem. The three Non-War graves in the cemetery were Commission employees.
Born on 27 May 1925, Terry was one of a large family of seven girls and two boys, most of whom were born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, where their parents were hotel owners. They came to Needingworth when Terry was twelve, during the depression years of the 1930s when the hotel was sold and their father became a painting contractor. They lived at ‘East View’, 19 Church Street, Needingworth. When Terry was young he loved playing football. When he left school he became an apprentice plumber.
At 18, in 1944, he was called up into the East Anglian regiment and trained at Bury St-Edmunds. One of his sisters, Ita, had joined the WAAFS, and his brother, Pat was in the Pathfinders . Terry then joined the Hallamshires, the 2nd battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment, and with them crossed to France in 1944 . Pat and Terry were very close (with only 13 months between them) but they saw little of each other from then on, the last time being when Terry was on leave in late 1944. However, they corresponded regularly, and Terry described his regiments ‘mopping up’ operations in France and Holland as they followed the German retreat. He once wrote of a village in Holland where, such was the hatred felt towards the Germans, that some of their dead had been placed into sties to feed the pigs.
The Hallamshires were reported as the first of the 49th Division’s troops to cross the Seine, the Dutch border and the Rhine . By April 1945 the division was poised to attack Arnhem, and the day of Terry’s death was reported as follows:
The next day, Friday the 13th, the Lincolns led the advance of the 146th Infantry Brigade with the object of clearing the eastern half of Arnhem up to its northern outskirts, The task of the Hallamshires was then to pass through and capture the dominating heights beyond the town itself.
Sheffield, Major O. F., The Yorks and Lancaster Regiment 1919-1953, Vol III (1956: Aldershot), pp. 155-56.
During the day the Hallamshires moved up from their concentration area, were ferried across the river in Buffaloes and reached their assembly area by 1630 hours. The Lincolns met much stiffer opposition than expected and their anticipated rate of advance was much slowed down. The result was that the Hallamshires’ attack, which was intended to be in daylight, was only able to begin at 1930 hours. The plan was for one company to attack at a time, each leap-frogging through the other in turn. Each company attack was preceded by a short, concentrated artillery programme and a “mattress”. This latter was a massive concentration of about 400 rockets firing into a limited area on the objective. It was believed that nothing could remain alive at the receiving end of this weight of high explosive.
On the slopes of the high ground which was the Battalion’s objective there was a thick wood, beyond this some barracks, and beyond them again a road junction. Starting its advance at 1930 hours, ‘B’ Company, under Major Grey, reached its objective half-way through the wood with little difficulty. ‘C’ Company, under Major Lonsdale-Cooper, then passed through, but took a long time getting up the hill through the thick wood in the dark. Nevertheless by 2200 hours it had captured the barracks, its objective. °D’ Company, under Major Mackillop, then made a night advance through the wood to the left of ‘C’ Company and reached a road junction at 2300 hours. During the day seventy-four prisoners were taken.
The report of Terry’s death in the Hunts Post 17 May 1945 was given added poignancy by appearing amidst coverage of the county’s victory celebrations for the end of the war in Europe.
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