Author: Lt Col (Retd) Steve Colling, Corps Historian

Every Night Something Awful… or going for a song!

We return once more to the Normandy Campaign of World War Two, but this time we’re looking at a rather different aspect of the REME experience.

Once the beachhead was established and the battle moved inland, a priority was to establish a logistic base in the area of Bayeux. During the planning phase, ground was allocated around the city for a number of critical functions from parking reserves of tanks, fuel and ammunition to providing hospitals and space for REME to conduct equipment repairs.

Individual regiments established their own echelons normally within a brigade area. In addition to providing reserve stocks on wheels ready to replenish the fighting troops, REME Light Aid Detachments (LADs) and Workshops carried out equipment repairs.

The echelon also provided a relatively safe location which was used to rest soldiers on a rotational basis. Cooks provided regular meals with fresh ingredients as an alternative to relying on ration packs with contents eaten ‘on the run’ and often cold.

The centralisation of echelons with a brigade area also allowed for some entertainment to be provided by the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) which was established in 1939. Players included Vera Lynn, Peter Sellers, Stanley Holloway, Noel Coward, Frankie Howard and Terry Thomas, Gracie Fields and George Formby. But there were also many less capable performers, which gave rise to the less favourable translation of the acronym (see above!).

ENSA re-enactor, Samantha, performing a medley of World War Two songs at our Wartime Britain event in May 2024.

At the time, George Formby toured in a Ford Mercury V8, which came up for auction a couple of years ago. It appeared recently, just before the 80th anniversary of D-Day in a village in Wiltshire. The car was originally owned in 1939 by racing motorist, Sir Malcolm Campbell, and used in support of his land and sea speed record attempts. He had it redesigned and used it as a crew support vehicle.

The Ford Mercury V8 with ENSA markings. © Steve Colling.

In 1943 Campbell met George Formby and offered the Mercury to him for his upcoming 53 Day ENSA tour of North Africa. The car was again modified, this time by REME! The livery was painted in line with military standards, given larger wheels and tires for use on sand, and partially painted windows to reduce the sun’s glare. All in all, it supposedly served with George in Italy, Sicily, Malta, Gibraltar, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine, helping him to entertain over 750,000 troops before returning to the UK.

Since then, the car has passed through various private collections and was last sold at auction in 2021.

In 1944, REME branched out and built a number of caravans for senior REME officers for use in North West Europe, a tradition that extended to the 1980s albeit with consequences for those involved!

With thanks to H&H Auctions and Classic & Sports Car, May 2021.

Find out more about REME units and their movements during the North-West Europe campaign of 1944-45 in our D-Day to VE Day Campaign. Follow along on Facebook or X (Twitter).