Widnes Memories: Ann Jones of Widnes identifies Vaagso raid in Freddie Lowe's Second World War pictures

By Runcorn And Widnes Weekly News on Jan 6, 10 10:37 AM in 1900-1945

A COMMANDO'S daughter from Widnes has identified a war ravaged village pictured in photographs found in an old tin as a Norwegian port raided by her father and other British forces in 1941.

Ann Jones, of Kilsby Drive, now hopes the photographs' owners, Alan and Elaine Leather, of Ditton, can help to unravel the riddle surrounding her father's death and burial.

Lance Sergeant Harold Povey was among the first commandos who fought house to house in a raid on Vaagso on December 27, 1941.

Operation Archery was the first joint amphibious raid carried out by the Navy, RAF and Army, during which Lance Sgt Povey died.

But Ann does not know whether he was buried on land or at sea and is to keen to discover whether Freddie Lowe, who compiled the photographs, told Alan and Elaine anything about the raid or what happened to Ann's father.

Freddie, Elaine Leather's uncle, served on HMS Leopold in the Navy, and Ann has no doubt that passengers on his ship would have spoken about the raid.

She added that she has seen the pictures before in After the Battle magazine and said they were official pictures taken by a military photographer.

Whether or not Freddie took the pictures remains uncertain but the Vaagso raid pictures' origin has been settled.

Ann said: "It would be good to find out if that bloke was on the raid or not and if he was whether he kept any diaries or information about Vaagso.

"The Leopold was one of 2 Commando's ships and if Freddie Lowe was on board he would have picked up the conversations going round and who was picked up by the Leopold on the way back.

"He might have picked up some information about my father.

"And if he wasn't on the raid but joined the ship afterwards he could have listened to what the commandos were saying.

"There were quite a few injured, some from phosphorus bombs and some because the HMS Kenya started firing early before the commandos were in position.

"But put it this way, you may never find out what really happened because those who saw or heard anything were sworn to secrecy."

ANN Jones began her research into her father's past after she discovered the wrong name was on her marriage certificate, and she was required to prove that he was dead.

Her mother had said he had died at Dunkirk, but Ann's painstaking research eventually revealed that he had been killed during the Vaagso raid on the German-occupied Norwegian island Maloy.

Ann learned that her father, Lance Sergeant sic Harold Thomas Andrew Povey, was in the Black Watch regiment, but the breakthrough came when she discovered that his name was included on a monument marking the Vaagso raids.

His Army records had been wrong and said he had died in the Middle East, but they have since been updated and his death certificate altered.

Before the war her father had served in Malta alongside the actor David Niven who in 1933 went off to make films while Harold Povey was posted to India. He joined the Black Watch in 1939 and within a month became an acting corporal.

In 1940 he joined the commandos and was part of an expeditionary force at Dunkirk but, unlike most of the Dunkirk troops, he returned to Britain 14 days after the June 6 raid.

He was soon back in action, becoming a founder member of the elite Special Services Commandos.

He was involved in a raid on Jersey before embarking on the Vaagso mission, where he was killed in house-to-house fighting.

The above picture shows Ann Jones has spent seven years researching her father's past and the Vaagso raids.

THE VAAGSO raid on the island of Maloy was the first combined forces operation. Its aim was to disrupt German supply lines.

Warehouses were dotted along the island's coastline, overlooked by German gun emplacements.

The commandos set out early in the morning of December 27 in the dark.

A British ship, The Kenya, opened fire and the shelling woke the Germans occupying the island.

The German company was on leave but consisted of elite troops of the 3 Pelatong Infantry Regiment 742.

Fighter planes dropped smoke bombs to indicate targets and machine gun emplacements had to be taken out before the British troops could press on through the town.

A total of 20 British soldiers were killed in the operation, which involved vicious house-to-house fighting and bayonet charges against machine gun positions.

The commandos captured 93 German troops and they were able to evacuate Norwegians from the island.

IN 2005, Ann was invited to visit the island along with surviving Commandos who had a final chance to remember their fallen comrades.

Three years earlier she visited the island to see first hand a monument constructed by the people of Vaagso in memory of the troops who died saving them.

Harold Povey's name is engraved alongside the names of RAF personnel and commandos as well as troops from New Zealand, Australia and Canada who died in the raid. It bears the inscription They fought and fell for our freedom.

And in June 2005 Ann joined the remaining commandos in a Lottery funded trip to the island where a spectacular ceremony was held.

She was invited to a reception hosted by local dignitaries and the spectacle included performances by the Royal Marines Band, a motorbike display team and Shetland Islanders who burned a Viking long boat.

The event took place in an arena built in the crater of an extinct volcano on the island.
She also met Joseph H Devin, author of The Vaagso Raids.

Ann also visited five unmarked graves, one of which she suspects could be her father's but her request to carry out DNA tests on the remains was refused by the Commonwealth Graves Commission on the grounds of contamination risk.

The following year a headstone in her father's memory was put up in a military cemetery in Trondheim and she attended the official blessing ceremony.

The picture shows Ann Jones, of Kilsby Drive, Widnes, pointing out her father's name on a memorial to soldiers who died in raids on Vaagso in Norway.

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