The First Land Casualties

This is an account of what I believe to have been the first casualties on land of the Second World War. It happened during the period sometimes known as 'the phoney war' from September 1939 to May 1940 when nothing seemed to be happening on the Western Front.

The Air Formation Signals was a Supplementary Reserve Unit consisting mainly of Post Office staff who had been called up at the beginning of the war. A section of the Unit was stationed near Epernay in the Champagne district of France, manning a signal office.

On the night of Friday, December 8th 1939 a group of off-duty men were returning from Epernay, where they had been attending a film show. While crossing a railway line in darkness, the truck in which they were travelling was struck by a train.

Five men, all from Hull were killed at the time and one, also from Hull, died later. There were several injuries. It is not known who was to blame for the accident, nor whether any person was subsequently disciplined.

The dead men were given a military funeral at which I was one of the bearers, and were interred in the cemetery at Epernay. I understand their remains were subsequently transferred to a military cemetery.

I was on duty at another signal office when the news came through and was considerably shaken since one of the deceased, Nick Walker, whose home was in South Shields but who worked at the Hull Post Office, had resided in the same lodgings as myself. Cliff Kitching of Cottingham was a fellow postal worker who entered the Hull Office at the same time as myself.

The names of all the men concerned are on a roll of honour at the present Hull Sorting Office in Malmo Road.

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