Onwards to the Rhine – Dorset Wood

The Keep Military Museum in Dorchester will be hosting a fundraising evening on Friday the 7th of March 2024 to raise funds for the purchase of the medals awarded to Lance-Corporal Frank Boyce.

This talk tells the story of a battle that took place in a wood on the Dutch-German border in mid-November 1944. In First World War conditions and at great cost, it was fought and won by two battalions of the Dorsetshire Regiment: the 4th and 5th. Part of the legendary 43rd Wessex Division, they had already lost heavily at Hill 112 in Normandy and again at Arnhem in September. Now they had to break their way into the German Siegfried Line which blocked the way into Nazi Germany. Four hundred miles long and two and a half miles deep, it was packed with bunkers, pill boxes, guns, mines and, tank obstacles, forming a formidable obstacle which the British and Americans had to break through.

In this menacing dark wood near Hatterath, the Dorsets did just that; they then held the position despite the Germans’ desperate efforts to get them out. Theirs was a triumph of stoical courage and great fortitude. Their Corps Commander, General Sir Brian Horrocks, wrote later:

The Battle of Geilenkirchen is barely mentioned in military histories, yet it was one of the hardest fought actions of the whole war. This was warfare at its most beastly with continuous cold rain turning the ground into a sea of mud and constant counter-attacks from experienced German troops.

For eighty years – as a tribute to our Dorset soldiers’ courage – the wood has been known as Dorset Wood. This talk tells this little-known story and concentrates on some of the officers and men who won this battle on the German border.

The proceeds from the tickets will be used by the Keep Museum to purchase the medals of Lance-Corporal Frank Boyce – known as Biddy – who was awarded the Military Medal for his outstanding courage in the attack on what became Dorset Wood. Biddy’s brave story will be told along with many others.

Our Speaker

Christopher Jary has written twelve books, including one about RAF Bomber Command and eight about the Hampshire, Devonshire and Dorsetshire Regiments. His 231 Malta Brigade Trilogy tells the story of the 2nd Devons, 1st Hampshires and 1st Dorsets in Malta, Sicily & Italy, and on D-Day. So Red a Road, tells the story of 130 Brigade (the 7th Hampshires and 4th & 5th Dorsets) from Normandy to Bremen and includes the Arnhem battle. His father, Sydney, fought as a subaltern in the 4th Somerset Light Infantry at Arnhem and won the Military Cross a month later.

This talk will be held at the Army Reserve Centre Dorchester, Poundbury Road, DR1 1RN.