Photos and postcards that a Scottish veteran took home with him in 1946 as a memento of the city returned some 80 years later as a reminder for Antwerp to him.
In February of this year the museum received a donation of several postcards of Antwerp and photographs of the SHAEF exposition in 1945. Although these are not particularly rare or worth much money, we would still like to share this donation with you and especially the story behind it.
“... that Antwerp, after Normandy, would be one of the gates through which freedom
would once again stride into Europe..." Mayor Craeybeckx.
Robert “Bob” Inglis was there when Normandy was made the first gate and came to Antwerp to let it play it's crucial part in the allied logistics as well. He also lived with the people of Antwerp in the city through almost the entire V-bomb period and was thus a close witness to both the role and the toll of Antwerp in W.W.2.
His son-in-law Andrew added the following to the donation document:
“This donation by his family to mark the military service with the Royal Navy of Robert (“Bob”) Inglis from Montrose Scotland, who came to Antwerp in 1944-45 with the Allied Forces, and to thank those who welcomed him there.”
The road to Antwerp...
The 20 year old Bob started in September 1941 as a recruit in the Royal Navy at H.M.S. Royal Arthur, a training center at Skegness on the English coast. In the class photo Bob can be seen with the rank of “Ordinary Signalman” on the second row, second from the left. In early April 1942 he was already in Freetown, Sierra Leone on the West coast of Africa. He was stationed there on the HMS Philoctetes, a ship moored in the harbor that was used as a depot and repair shop for the Atlantic convoys. After about 1.5 years he was brought back to England to receive the necessary training in preparation for Operation Overlord, the long-awaited invasion.
Combined Operations was set up by Churchill after the Dunkirk evacuation to have an offensive organisation that would keep the Germans under pressure and in which the army, navy and air force would operate under one command. The most famous raid they carried out was probably the one at St. Nazaire but on many other fronts valuable experience was gained in large and small operations in amphibious warfare. In the largest amphibious landing in history, all this would come in handy, of course. And extra people, like Bob!
From January 1944 he stayed at the bases HMS Mylodon and HMS Woolverstone, both places where landing craft were practiced. On 6 June 1944 he was transferred to Naval Party 1570 with destination Juno Beach. Whether he arrived in Courseulles on D-Day itself or a few days later is not certain, but he and his colleagues performed an important task at the "Flag Officer British Assault Area” (FOBAA), Rear Admiral Charles Rivett-Carnac. He had administrative control of Sword, Juno and Gold Beach and senior officers of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF were attached to him. All communications from the numerous ships and other services were to be routed through him.
After a few months in Courseulles, NP1570 settled in Rouen where Bob had his picture taken in his khaki uniform with the Combined Operations insignia and his specialisation as “Signalman”. From 10 October he would spend a first week in Antwerp and thus also experience the beginning of the V-bombs when the first V2s hit the city on 13 October.
From 8 November Bob was permanently transferred to Antwerp to serve in the larger Naval Party 1501 which had to prepare everything to quickly put the port into use. His transfer should not come as a surprise since access to the port had finally been opened with the bloody Battle of the Scheldt. However, the bombardment with the V2s had only increased in intensity since his first week in the city and had also been supplemented with many V1s since 21 October.
After the liberation, Belgians serving in the Royal Navy were regrouped in the Parties that managed the ports, especially those of Antwerp. One of them was Hendrik Van Riel (OBE) from Antwerp, who had volunteered for the British forces in 1940 and after commando training became part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). He was already active in raids on the Belgian and French coast at the end of June 1940. From 14 July 1944 he had joined Bob's unit NP1570 as Fleet Bomb Safety Officer and on 13 September he started working for NP1501 in Antwerp as Staff Officer (Intelligence).
(City archives Antwerp)
In the Hof van Liere in the Prinsstraat, then a boarding school, the Royal Navy established its HMS Athelstan, under which Bob was also registered for some time from 1945. The first three months of that year were also Bob's last at NP1501, but certainly not in Antwerp. Fortunately, the last V-bomb fell in Antwerp at the end of March and he could finally feel safe there for the first time. He had made the crucial role of the Antwerp port possible and had seen with his own eyes the toll the city had paid for this.
Bob would eventually stay in the city for at least a year and naturally develop a bond not only with the city but also its people. Evidence of this can be found in the photographs of some of them in the Inglis family archive. Do you recognize someone, is Bob perhaps in your family archive?
Bob in “The Big Four, Antwerp” on 12/8/1945.
Unknown
J. Nevejans, Montenstraat. (25.11.1944)
Unknown (Studio Coens, Sergijselsstraat, July 1945).
Florence Mertens (Studio Alfons, Kloosterstraat, 1944).
Charles (De Dobbelaer?)
It should come as no surprise that Bob visited the big SHAEF exhibition in Antwerp in June 1945 and bought some photos as souvenirs. In July he seems to have taken some photos of the ships with which the American president Truman came to Antwerp, on his way to the Potsdam conference. In any case, the photographer was clearly standing on the roof of the Maritime School at the Noordkasteel.
Ship with Truman, USS Augusta.
Escort, USS Philadelphia.
Escort, HMS Holderness.
In 1946 Bob returned to Scotland but there he rarely spoke about his experiences during the war.
Son-in-law Andrew shared a nice photo of Bob at a dinner for his 90th birthday and also explained how the family eventually came to realize how much the war had affected Bob.
“Although he spoke rarely of his war experiences, the memories stayed with him .. and perhaps as dementia set in with old age, some were evidently troubling for him. Still, Bob was proud to wear his Armed Forces Veteran lapel badge at his 90th birthday celebration.”
Robert “Bob” Inglis passed away later that year on October 12th, 2011.
Only thanks to the interest and help of son-in-law Andrew and daughter Susan has it become possible to help preserve not only the photos and postcards, but especially the story behind them, in Antwerp. They are now a reminder of Bob's story in W.W.2 and through him that of Antwerp and its port. We thank both and also the whole family for this opportunity.
This article is a summary of a more complete pdf in our archive, click here to download it.
““It makes for very interesting reading and something which I shall treasure. To be honest I found it quite emotional reading the report as it brings together a part of dad's life that none of us really knew about. I will add also that I feel very proud of dad when reading this. These were very troubled times that I cannot begin to imagine how it was to live through it. Sadly I never realised how important Antwerp was for the freedom of Europe, something we don't hear much about over here.”