Phantom |

Links to MOUSSEY & OP LOYTON 1944

Introducing

https://operationloyton1944.org

The Phantom Garden

This Garden is situated beside the ASPECTS Centre on the central causeway to the Armed Forces Memorial. The Friends of the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove have taken responsibility for its maintenance as of June 2024 in order to continue Lens Legacy at the NMA.

The Phantom Garden is linked to our new Moussey Memorial page.

On the right hand side of the main causeway to the Armed Forces Memorial.

The Phantom Garden – National Memorial Arboretum.

“OPERATION FLINTSTONE”

(Memorial Midlands Today April 2003 1633 17 9)

Sgt. Len Owens MM

Royal Signals, GHQ Liaison Regiment and 2 SAS.

Len who joined our original association in 1999 called Mike Colton and said that he had a problem. The problem was that he needed a one-tonne piece of Coral Granite collected from a quarry near Senones in the Rabodeau Valley, Vosges, France and brought to the NMA. So off we went on “Operation Flintstone” and within 2 days we had travelled over 1200 miles and brought Len his stone, thus ending his problem! This stone now sits in pride of place on the Phantom Memorial which is close to the new Aspects Centre and beside the causeway to the Armed Forces Memorial.

30th June 2024 0545 hours

The Phantom Garden Consists of 10 elements contained within the “P” for Phantom logo shape of the garden, which introduce visitors to the story of Moussey and the Special Air Service “Operation Loyton” during WW2.

1. Three plaques honour Lens pals who served with him and lost their lives behind enemy lines in 1944.

Updated 7th April 2025

These three plaques have been repainted and the cost has been met by Mike Colton.

Memorial Text
Signalman Peter Bannerman – Royal Corps of Signals – Age 23
Sergeant Gerald Donavan Davis – Royal Armoured Corps – Age 26
Signalman George Gourlay Johnston – Royal Corps of Signals – Age 28

2. The main plaque beside the memorial telling a brief story of “Operation Loyton”

Memorial Text
Phantom GHQ Liaison Regiment.
Phantom was a Wireless Communications Unit.
In 1944, F Squadron Phantom was in France carrying out a special role to provide communications for the SAS. This was called Operation Loyton.
The SAS had been parachuted behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains around Moussey to organise and arm the local resistance. Their job was to disrupt the enemy in advance of General Patton’s Seventh Army drive through the Vosges Mountains to Strasbourg.
This memorial is erected to the memory of three members of F Squadron Phantom who were killed on Operation Loyton and to others who gave their lives at the same time.
Sergeant Gerald Donovan Davis – age 26 of Maidenhead. Originally Queen Victoria Rifles and Royal Armoured Corps.
He was betrayed, captured, tortured and shot on the 20th August 1944. He is interred and has a memorial in the village Churchyard in Moussey, Vosges France.
Signalman George Gourlay Johnston – Age 28 of Kirkcaldy, Fife.
He was killed in combat near Fontenay-la-Joute, France on 20th October 1944 when returning through enemy lines. He has no known grave.
Signalman Peter Bannerman – Age 23 of Inverbervie, Kincardineshire.
He was killed in combat near Fontenay-la-Joute, France on 20th October 1944 when returning through enemy lines. He is interred and has a memorial in the village churchyard of Moussey, Vosges, France.
TO THE 31 MEN OF THE 2nd SAS REGIMENT AND THE SERVICE WOMEN. The men were captured, many of them were tortured and all were shot by the Gestapo, Alsace on the orders of Hitler.
The Women, one British and two French were killed by lethal injection at Schirmeck Concentration Camp, their bodies were found later in a mass grave at Natzweiler.
TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE FRENCH RESISTANCE of that area of France, remembered with great humility, who gave their lives giving aid and support to the SAS. So many men were killed in the village of Moussey it is now known as the Valley of the Widows. Their sacrifice must never be forgotten.
In a lonely clearing at Viombois high up in the forest of Lorraine there is a memorial to those of the French Resistance who fell in the campaign of 1944.
The Gestapo commander in Alsace, the Gestapo chief of France and the Gestapo chief in Strasbourg were all tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Others were given prison sentences.
This memorial has been erected by two of the survivors of Loyton with support from officers and other ranks of Phantom, the Allied Special Forces Association, Hereford and the Old Maidonians Association, Maidenhead

3. The Coral Granite with the commemorative plaque set in, and the Cross of Lorraine with the French and British Flags.

4. The Coral Granite Commemorative Plaque.

Memorial Text
Cross of Lorraine Emblem
This stone is coral granite and is mined only in the Moussey area of North eastern France.
It represents the part played by the local resistance in Operation Loyton.
When General Patton stopped his advance at Nancy, the Germans released two divisions, one armoured to sweep the district.
This resulted in the death of 31 SAS men.
They then rounded up 220 men from the local area and offered them amnesty to any who would give them information.
NO ONE MOVED.
Consequently they were all deported to prison camps such as Dachau and Mathausen, from which 140 did not return.
This debt can never be repaid.
The Rosemary hedge around this plot has 140 bushes.
Each one represents a member of the French resistance who was killed.
This stone was brought from Moussey by members of the Allied Special Forces Association, Hereford.

5. The names of the deportees who did not return.

6. The names of the Special Air Service soldiers and the Women of Special Operations Executive who lost their lives behind enemy lines during Operation Loyton.

Memorial Text
SAS MEN LOST ON OPERATION LOYTON
Private Christopher Ashe – Age 27
Lance Corporal Fredrick Austin – Age 24
Private James Bennett – Age 20
Lieutenant James Black – Age tbc
Private Selwyn Brown – Age 36
Lieutenant Geoffrey Castellain – Age 24
Private Reginald Church – Age 24
Private John Conway – Age 19
Private Jack Crosier – Age 21
Lieutenant David Dill – Croix de Guerre – Age 20
Private James Dowling – Age 22
Lance Corporal John Elliot – Age 27
Sergeant Michael Fitzpatrick MM – Age 27
Private Maurice Griffin – Age 23
Sergeant Ralph Hay – Croix de Guerre – Age tbc
Corporal Thomas Ivison – Age 31
Corporal Boris King (aliais Kasperovitch) – Age tbc
Private Donald Lewis – Age 18
Private Leonard Lloyd – Age 23
Sergeant Robert lodge – DCM – (aliais Rudolf Friedlaender) Age 36
Private Peter McGovern – Age 23
Sergeant Walter Nevill – Age 31
Private Fredrick Puttick – Age 29
Major Denis Reynolds Age tbc
Lance Corporal George Robinson – Age 24
Lieutenant James Silly – Age 20
Sergeant Frank Terry-Hall Age 34
Private Edwin Weaver – Age 38
Major Anthony Whately-Smith – Age 29
Corporal Harry Winder – Age 30
SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE (S.O.E.)
Killed at Strutof/Natzweiller Concentration Camp
Andree Borrel
Vera Leigh
Diana Rowden
Sonia Olschanezky
Killed at Gaggenau
Captain Victor Gough

7. The Bigger Picture!

Memorial Text
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Alsace and Lorraine are French provinces on the border with Germany. Before the First World War they belonged to Germany, but in 1918 the territory was given back to France.
For 8 years before the outbreak of WW2 the French had been building the Maginot Line which fortified their frontier with Germany. This created great resentment in Germany and Hitler promised to reclaim them.
The west face of these mountains was considered by the Germans as a “buffer zone” to protect their own territory.
Moussey and nearby villages are situated in the middle of this area and life soon became very harsh, with many people wanting to flee to other parts of France where life was less severe.
The French Resistance (Maquis) became very active, assisting over 15,000 Alsations and Jewish people, British and American airmen, and Germans unsympathetic to Hitler, to escape out of the area over the high mountain passes.
On 13th August 1944 Operation Loyton commenced. It lasted for 11 weeks and was centred around the tiny village of Moussey. During this period all the men of Moussey were interrogated by the German Einsatz Kommandos and asked to provide information.
Everyone remained silent and as a result they were all deported to concentration camps. Nine other villages, all within a 10 mile radius of Moussey, also suffered a similar fate.
In total 966 men were arrested and deported to concentration camps. 661 were never t return. 23 more were shot and killed in the area.
Left behind in the Rabodeau Valley were 450 widows and 750 orphans. In 2001 these “children” established L’Association des Orphelins de Deportes.
The historical context together with the geographical location of these village helps to explain why these villages were singled out and received such brutal treatment.

8. Commemorating James Lovitt Silly on seat in garden.

Memorial Text
Loving memories Lt James L Silly -2nd SAS – Operation Loyton – Executed (SS) – St Prievl (Barodet) Vosges – 22.10.44.

9. Memorial Plaques commemorating Len and his late wife Tess on seat in garden.

Memorial Text
Sgt Len Owens MM
This plaque is dedicated to the memory of our much loved father Ex. Sergeant Len ‘Joe’ Owens who died on 4th May 2013 aged 92.
He was the last survivor of Operation Loyton.
In 2002 he decided to plant 3 trees in memory of his 3 friends who were killed on Operation Loyton. This is how the Phantom Garden born. It was designed and built by Len and his son Robert.
Jane, Robert and all his loving family and friends.

Lens Tribute to Tess
This seat is dedicated to my beloved wife Tess who died in 2001. We met at a Phantom Sergeants Mess party when she was serving with the Control Commission for Germany.
We were together for 56 years – Phantom is part of our story. Tess would have supported the memorial and I am proud to be associated with it.
Ex. Sergeant Len ‘Joe’ Owens MM. Royal Signals, Phantom 1&2 SAS and family.