British Firemen's Wartime Continental Tour

By Mike Smith

The 24th January 2025 sees the 80th anniversary of a shipping movement at Tilbury which marked a very unusual event in British fire service history. On that day in 1945 three Landing Ships(Tank) (LSTs) sailed from the port. They didn’t go very far, spending three days anchored off Southend waiting for the weather to improve before sailing through rough seas to the continent. 

LSTs had been sailing from Tilbury for the previous seven months, ever since some of the first of the D Day invasion fleet left the Thames for Normandy. The 24th January 1945 departures carried 141 vehicles, many of vaguely military appearance, all marked with  white Allied aircraft recognition stars, but painted grey and with civilian registration numbers.  On the move they formed a convoy two miles long. The 558 personnel with these vehicles were disciplined and uniformed, again with something of a military bearing enhanced by their military style berets and Army issue equipment such as packs, water bottles etc. But their uniforms were blue. Vehicles and personnel were civilian. This was No 4 (Overseas) Column of the National Fire Service (NFS). (Essex Fire Museum has a mannequin in the uniform and equipment of an Overseas Column fireman.) 

Allied military planners predicted that as their armies advanced across Europe their extended lines of communication and supply dumps would be at serious risk from fire started accidentally, by sabotage, or by enemy action. The British Army had its own Army Fire Service, part of the Pioneer Corps, but the fire risk to the supply lines was considered beyond its capabilities and whilst civilian fire brigades in the liberated countries might offer good will, they would have been so degraded by war that they could offer little else. So it was resolved to send firemen and equipment from Britain’s NFS to support the military.  

Firemen who volunteered for unspecified special duties in early 1944 found themselves at training centres in north Essex, south Suffolk and across East Anglia where the programme concentrated on physical fitness, outdoor living and improvising different forms of firefighting. It eventually became clear what the object of this training was and it was anticipated that several firefighting contingents would move to Europe. However, deploying unarmed civilians to a war zone to operate under military orders and at times very close to the front line was fraught with administrative and legal difficulties and delays ensued. As a consequence, some of the newly formed units were regularly sent to the London area to deal with incidents caused by the German VI “flying bombs” and V2 rocket bombs.  

The problems over despatching the firefighters to the continent compounded to delay their departure into 1945 and reduce the numbers involved from five Columns to one. That left its assembly point for Tilbury on 23rd January, camping overnight en-route. It was the coldest night of a very cold winter and the firemen awoke to find their tents half-buried in snow! Then there was further bad weather and the rough sea crossing, prompting a report to note that, “seasickness was a problem!”  

The Column, it included a small military liaison contingent, was made up of five companies, each comprising a number of Fordson fire tenders with trailer pumps, and support vehicles- mobile kitchens, mobile workshops, despatch riders, etc, and a Column Headquarters. A company was designed to be completely self-sufficient and able to work on its own. In the event, once in Europe some companies were split up and often individual crews worked alone. The personnel of the companies loosely organised themselves according to their origins – Welshmen, Scots and 118, 21% of the Column’s strength spread across two companies, from Essex.  

The Column disembarked at Ostend and moved forward to support the US Army and initially its headquarters was at Namur in Belgium, with two companies at Liège in Belgium and others in France at Verdun and Étain. The Verdun company had its first fire the day after it arrived in the town. Accommodation across Europe varied from tents to chateaux.  

Surprisingly the US Army had no equivalent of the British Army Fire Service and the NFS men found a high fire risk at its supply lines, especially at forward depots where petrol was decanted into jerry cans. At these the British firemen immediately set about digging ponds to store at least 1000 gallons of water for fire fighting. From the outset the Overseas Column impressed their American hosts as was evidenced in written commendations from senior American officers and the award of the American Medal of Freedom to the Column Commander, Divisional Officer, J M Kelly. In some forward areas the Americans repainted the NFS vehicles in olive drab and issued US Army uniforms to the crews in case the grey vehicles and blue uniforms led to the NFS being mistaken for Germans. They also supplied the Column’s company commanders with red jeeps, and DO Kelly with a Dodge ¾ ton truck.  

At the peak of its time in Europe the Column operated over a wide area, its despatch riders averaged over 200 miles a day, making control and administration difficult. At one point it was spread across five countries – France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany – Company DX4 entered Germany on March 17th 1945. Some companies were very close to the front and one was actually cut-off for several hours until a German counter-attack was repulsed. Many of the incidents dealt with involved difficult and dangerous fires in ammunition and petrol dumps. The danger increased for units in Germany where snipers were active and booby traps and mines injured NFS personnel. On occasion German fire appliances were requisitioned, once at (US Army?) pistol point!  

In mid-April the Column’s American attachment ended and it deployed to support British operations in Belgium with companies based at Antwerp, covering extensive dock installations, others at Ostend, and one at Malines to protect fuel and ammunition dumps there. Whilst conditions were not as adventurous as they had been, the Column was still kept busy but was at least quartered in fire stations, or static bases.  

The Overseas Column remained in Belgium after VE Day (8th May), but on 15th July 1945 it embarked on LSTs to return to Tilbury and from there it drove in convoy to an official welcome from the Home Secretary and senior NFS officers in London’s Regent’s Park.  

Over its time in Europe the Column dealt with some 500 large fires and over 100 other incidents such as fuel pipeline leaks. It impressed all who had contact with it and carved a unique niche in British fire service history. Its personnel came from a wide variety of backgrounds and included, former graduates, teachers, a steeplejack and an undertaker. All those who served with the Column qualified for a British military medal, the France and Germany Star. 

When the fire service in Britain returned to local control after the war several of the senior officers with the Column became Chief Officers in the new county, county borough and regional fire brigades.