In contrast to the Great War, an alleged war to end all wars, the Second World War was by far a more dangerous and hostile time to live, not only for the soldiers, but just as much for the civilians of the battling nations. At the time of the treaty of Versailles in 1919 all possible precautions were taken in an attempt to make sure nothing like the First World War would ever happen again, unfortunately to no avail. The Nazi’s sweeping victory to power in 1933 should have been enough to set alarm bells ringing in neighbouring governments heads, in particular over the next few years as they steadily accumulated and constructed new armaments and weapons of war. When these were finally unleashed in their entirety on an unprepared Poland in September 1939 six of the most turbulent years that have ever been recorded globally began, with a casualty list far surpassing the previous war, and indeed a casualty list that up until that point could never have been imagined. At this point Filey, as with most towns, had begun to put the distressing times of 1914-18 behind them; a new generation of young adults had just grown up and the Great War was beginning to seem like a far off time. The memories of the lost were still understandably cherished and the fathers of the new generation would still probably wince and grimace at thoughts of their time in the trenches with occasional oblique references to them in front of their families, but on the whole it seemed like a thing of the past. The amount of emotion that would have risen then at the time of the declaration of war against Germany on September 3^rd 1939 is unthinkable and it is possibly virtually unimaginable as so many fears and anxieties could no longer be allayed.

So once again Filey collectively realised that it may lose a generation to what seemed like a fight that wasn’t theirs initially. Gradually, the consequences of a Nazi occupied Europe would have dawned on them and reluctantly the older members of the community would have waved a sorrowful farewell to the first few men to go into the services. How many would return no-one knew, and it would be a total of 53 men, aged between 19 and 64, that was to be taken from them so abruptly before the surrender of the Nazi’s at the end of April 1945, as well as a further 37 who perished in and around the Filey district who had not grown up there, but were still a part of the community.

Unlike the previous war, the army regiments do not seem to have been ordered so that the majority of the men within that regiment were from its original area base. For example, a lot fewer men served in the East Yorkshire Regt. as in the First World War but served instead in regiments such as the Coldstream Guards and the Northamptonshire Regt., which had bases much further south than was previously used. In addition, the Second World War was the first war of its kind to see three major forces in action instead of just two, and this was due to the arrival of the Royal Air Force.

The R.A.F. was first formed as an individual entity in 1918 when it separated from its previous incarnation as the Royal Flying Corps., within the army structure to being a single service with its own ranking system and awards, to name but a few of its unique attributes. During the period of 1914-18 aircraft technology was remarkably simple in comparison to that of its other army counterparts, with the plane bodies being constructed mainly of wood and fabric, effectively leaving it not viable to use on a mass scale as was used with the artillery guns and so on. The last year or so of the Great War was when the most aerial advances took place, establishing the aeroplane as a hot prospect for future developments. This meant that in the inter-war years large amounts of finances were spent on aircraft development, so at the start of World War II plane technology had reached a level where the planes had an armament as good as any land vehicle of a similar purpose, and an arsenal of weapons to match. With the capability of the heavier aircraft, such as bombers, to travel long distances it meant a whole new weapon was ready for exploiting, an unfortunate fact the Axis powers knew very well and were poised to use. In essence it meant that the 1939-45 war was the first global scale war where civilians were afflicted just as badly as the troops away at the front, with both sides dropping millions of tonnes of bombs on each others doorsteps (quite often, literally!). Eight out of Filey’s fifty-three casualties died whilst on operations in one of the Air Force groups, and their burial sites reflect the fact that tragedy could happen at any point during their mission. For example, Flying Officer George Bradley is buried in a small town cemetery in Denmark with seven other airman, which is approximately two aircraft crew, perhaps after crashing their when returning from a German raid. In contrast, Sergeant William Harrison is buried in St. Oswald’s church cemetery after probably dying of wounds at home, which would have been inflicted whilst on a mission.

There are also another six airmen and soldiers buried within a secluded spot of St. Oswald’s graveyard, not locals from Filey who came home to die but men who died whilst on duty and came from many different places. Three of these comprise one partial aircrew and I will now attempt to describe how they came to be interred where they are. They are the crew of one of the Operational Training Units (the 16^th to be exact) based in the nearby regions which as the title informs is that it was a training squadron, in its case based in the North East of England. On the night of the 10^th of October 1942 at 8.37pm their Wellington Mk III bomber was seen over the village of Forden seemingly searching for a landmark, but never managing to find one and eventually they nose dived onto a small plantation after the plane stalled whilst in too tight a turn. The five crew’s bodies were recovered in the vicinity of the crash and three of which were buried in St. Oswald’s. The fourth was ‘repatriated’ to his home village of Limpsfield, Surrey and the fifth member of the crew, Sgt. J.A. Fox was interred to his home of Wandsworth. The other three soldiers were of Polish origin and belonged to the Polish Forces, as it says on their graves. They were stationed in Pickering and all had died from multiple wounds caused by an accidental explosion on their base. It has been suggested that Polish refugees were housed in Filey throughout the course of the war although very sparse evidence is present for this, but this theory would seem to collaborate well with the burials, otherwise why would Polish servicemen be buried in St. Oswald’s?

Other aircrashes occurred around Filey around the time of the war, such as the Halifax bomber of 78 Squadron that at 6.50pm on the 11^th December 1942 ditched in the sea between Bempton and Filey after its port engine caught fire, and also the Mosquito that crashed on the 18^th August 1945. In both of these cases no casualty were reported as the crews had bailed out safely. A final aircrash of a different nature happened on the 4^th February 1943 when a German Dornier Do217-E was attacked and damaged by Beaufighters of 219 Squadron. The aircraft continued along the straight path it had been set and gradually lost height before grounding near Muston but it is worth remembering its personnel. The Dornier’s four aircrew bailed out, whilst possibly injured or dying, over Filey Bay and were never seen or heard of again as their bodies were never washed ashore.

On the afternoon of 23^rd April 1944 Flight Officer Robert Agnew, an Australian, and Flight Officer Harold Blackwell were also killed in an aircraft crash on Folkton Wold when their aircraft for no obvious reason nose-dived and killed them both instantly on impact.

Within the Second World War the seafaring members of the Filey community seemed to have suffered more than anybody else, with a massive twenty one of the fifty three casualties dying in the various naval services, ranging from the regular Royal Navy, to the Merchant Navy but also to the Fishing Fleet, a force that was not as readily used in the First World War. With the introduction of rationing due to Nazi blockades, the fishing industry became even more vital to the nations health, because if fish could continue to be caught off English shores then at least some extra food would be available. To this extent, a Fishing Fleet was formed including many fishermen who were still eligible for service, but became exempt due to the need for them to undertake their natural profession. Even with this in mind, several casualties were still suffered at the hands of Germans, presumably through mines and the like and it was in these circumstances that Filey lost four men in one day, as the Fishing vessel the Joan Margaret who was registered at Grimsby, went down with all hands. Like the Emulator at the end of the previous war the men were from Filey and were either friends or related to each other in some way.

Although the Merchant naval vessel the S.S. Stanburn technically has no personal link to Filey it still seems appropriate to discuss its fate. Like the Emulator, it too was destroyed whilst in Filey Bay and suffered a loss of all nine hands on the night of 29^th January 1940. It was bombarded by enemy aircraft and sank with eight of the nine personnel on board whose bodies were washed up on the Filey coastline over the next week. The one exception was Ordinary Seaman Robert Brown, aged 17, who was recovered from the water shortly after the explosion but died of exposure and the wounds he suffered the next morning; a sad end especially for one so young and considering what he lived through.

Another section of the maritime community, the Royal Naval Patrol Service, suffered heavily, with a third of all the Filey naval losses being from this group. The R.N.P.S.’ main functions were, primarily, to patrol and guard the British coastline from enemy craft but in addition they played a vital support role to the other naval departments including as seaplane tenders and fuel carriers. At the outbreak of war the fleet consisted almost entirely of requisitioned drifters and trawlers manned by the fisherman who owned them, but by 1944 1,637 new vessels had been put into operation with a total crewing staff of 57,000 between them.

A puzzling naval feature occurs when looking at Chief Officer Lowrey’s details. Firstly, he is 64 and serving as an officer in the Mercantile Marines, which could possibly be overlooked (as was probably the case with Mark Scotter in the First World War) if it was his own vessel or one he had worked on before the war. However, he appears to have been serving on the Greek vessel the Kolchis, which certainly wasn’t local by any means and neither would it have been the obvious for any recruitment officer to put him on initially had it been captured.

One of the most poignant sights when looking through the commemoration details of the men is to see family members and relations often being killed thousands of miles apart; but back in Filey the distress would just have had just the same effect. Probably the worst cases visible within these pages is that of Elizabeth Stonehouse who lost both her husband and her son in the two wars, both of whom were called Albert Charles Stonehouse, and in addition both Gunners; Albert senior in the Royal Artillery in the trenches and Albert junior a Gunner on the ship the H.M.S. Douglas. What is even more upsetting is that both men had just had their thirtieth birthdays before they died, albeit 26 years apart and in separate countries. The Birch family suffered similarly with two brothers being killed in the two wars, Lt. E.W. Birch in the first and his brother Commander J.K.B. Birch being killed early in the second. Events like this today would be classed as family disasters or at the very least treated like the men in question were cheated by death, but the reality was, it was an everyday occurrence for many women of Elizabeth Stonehouse's age. Women up and down the country would have been able to sympathise with Elizabeth’s plight, as so many went through the same situations time and time again. In some families, fortunately very few in Filey, two entire male generations were taken away and to some women at this point the phase as coined by Wilfred Owen years earlier "Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori" (It is fitting and honourable to die for your country), would sound bitterly through their minds.

Although misfortune loomed around every corner for many of the serving populous of the time there still seemed to be an air of defiance that life must carry on as always no matter what the cost and many letters sent between loved ones reflect this. Unfortunately, no correspondence between Filey men and their loved ones is currently available but a letter, now published, from a son to a mother sums up this way of thinking. This was written almost as a testimonial to this belief shortly before the soldier’s death in combat:

"Tomorrow we go into action. As yet we do not know exactly what our job will be, but no doubt it will be a dangerous one in which many lives will be lost - mine may be one of those lives…...My world is centred around you and Dad, everyone at home and my friends-That is what is worth fighting for and if by doing so it strengthens your security and improves your lot in any way, then it is worth dying for too." Later he writes "I want no flowers, no epitaph, no tears. All I want is you to remember me and feel proud of me, then I shall rest in peace knowing that I have done a good job."

Even within wartime, abnormal tragedies could happen and each casualty of Filey would probably have a tale to tell if enough was known about him. Three cases which could be interpreted as having ‘bad’ wars (doubting that anyone has a ‘good’ war) were John Colley, Francis Farline and Frederick Halifax. Pte. Colley is commemorated on an Italian war memorial, which seems fair enough since it was a warzone itself, but his date of death on closer inspection shows itself to be a full nine months before any of the Allied landings took close. Further investigation revealed that a prisoner of war camp was in the vicinity of the cemetery and used to be used for burying prisoners, and so Pte. Colley must have spent his last days as a prisoner of war, a miserable end for any life.

In contrast, Dvr. Halifax probably suffered only momentarily, as he died when his ship sunk after a German raid on it. The key point to note here is that he was not in the Navy and died whilst aboard a transport en route to his new post, or possibly even home on leave, so his demise was very untimely and proved that even out of the specified combat zones life was still very dangerous for serving soldiers.

Finally, Spr. Farline’s story is probably the worst of the three. He was a member of the Royal Engineers who was stationed in France throughout some of the early stages of the war and was also present at the Dunkirk evacuations. The saddest part of his story is that he never managed to get onto one of the departing transports and was left in France as they departed. His record shows that he lived for another two weeks after the end of the Dunkirk campaign before being buried in one of the cemetery’s around the nearby town, whether this being because he was captured or shot, or whether he was wounded and in hospital when the evacuations took place.

Something worth noting is that Pte. Colley was not alone in the PoW camp without knowing anybody as one of the strangest stories I’ve heard from this period was related to me about his battalion. His battalion, the 5^th Yorkshire Regiment (known to virtually all and sundry as part of the Green Howards) were fighting in the North African campaign, as part of ‘Monty’s army’ (General Montgomery’s army) against the Germans. At one point during a heated battle the battalion was attempting to hold its position against superior German numbers, but to their dismay ran out of ammo and supply lines had been cut so no back-up could reach them. Eventually, they could do nothing else but lay down their empty firearms and give in, meaning that the entire battalion, to a man, instantly became prisoners of war and the majority ended up in camps in nearby Italy. However, when the Italians surrendered the men were released and managed to escape for at least the next few days until, to their misfortune, the German Army arrived and rounded up to be taken to more secure camps in Poland and Germany, where the majority of them spent the rest of the war until liberated by the Russians.

Like most places around the country during the Second World War certain buildings around Filey were commandeered by the military to be put to wartime use. In Filey’s case, the recently built Butlin’s holiday Camp and Primrose Valley were converted into an R.A.F. base known as R.A.F. Hunmanby Moor, not for aircraft use as such, as R.A.F. Bempton supplied that but as a basic training base and barracks and unfortunately a good number of casualties occurred in relation to this. Five were caused by accidental explosions by mines with a further two Royal Engineers from the 14^th Bomb Disposal Group dying in an explosion at the base.

In addition to the military comandeering buildings, Filey still seemed to be used throughout the war as a place of quiet convalescence for military personnel recuperating (although not official military use it can still be connected), although not all did recover as Pte. Jarvis’ grave in St. Oswald’s grimly shows. The fact that this is the only death whilst convalescing do provide substantial evidence that, on the whole, the Filey atmosphere and sea air that so many visitors over the years have cherished and enjoyed were beneficial to the soldiers health and morale. Pte. Hutchinson’s stay in Filey took an even worse turn than dying naturally as, according to records he ‘took his life whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed’ by poisoning himself one night in the basement of the accommodation he was staying in. Much of the Crescent and the surrounding region was commandeered by the military for the duration of the war, and so many soldiers were billeted there, which presumably provided an ideal location for both training and relaxing. As always, there was an exception to the rule, as Warrant Officer Fowler, R.C.A.F. discovered on a February day in 1944 when he drowned in the vicinity of Hunmanby Gap, making him effectively the only able bodied casualty not to die in combat in the Filey region throughout both wars. An inquest recorded death by misadventure, and as he was allegedly out walking it can only be assumed he was on leave at the time.

Another man associated with the air force worth remembering is Aircraftsman 2^nd class W.O. Dawns of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (West Indies) who died on the 19^th January 1945 of pneumonia and exposure at R.A.F. Hunmanby Moor station. His original home was on a plantation in Jamaica, so in some sense it would be expected that he would be more susceptible to the cold than other men at the base.

A final and somewhat intriguing casualty is Robert Batley (or Battery) who died from rifle wounds to the head whilst on duty at No. 5 Concrete Pillbox, Primrose Valley. Mortuary records show he was aged 27, a Private and belonged to the 349^th Coastal Battery (presumably of the home guard), so he must have existed, although all official military sources overlook him. Whether, like A.C. Dawns, he was found under a misspellt version of his name has yet to be seen but currently his commemoration details and service records remain unknown.

Although less men from Filey saw action in the Second War than the First, the overall toll for the war was greater on the town, by ten extra men, mainly because of the advent of advanced aircraft technology and the proximity of the military bases close by to the town. These men, like most probably stationed throughout the country would have been accepted into the town culture, and would have spent at least some of their leave in the town itself, getting to know the ‘locals’ who would also have grieved on their deaths. In some senses the six years starting in 1939 might have actually been more of a strain on the Filey townsfolk than the previous war, as death was brought home much more sharply with the almost clockwork in nature deaths of ship crews, aircraft crews, and military personnel throughout the course of the war, but as always life carried on. It is much more evident when viewing St. Oswald’s churchyard that the Second World War was a war fought on all fronts, particularly the home one, instead of just in foreign lands that encompassed every member of the British Isles in one way or another, whether it be from the smallest child at home hungry because of rationing to the soldier seeing sights no man would have thought possible on a far off battlefield.