John Geoffrey Appleyard, (20 December 1916 – 13 July 1943) was a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer, who served in the
Commandos
Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured
A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...
and
Special Air Service during the Second World War.
Early life and education
Appleyard was born in
Bramley, Leeds
Bramley is a district in west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the City of Leeds Ward of Bramley and Stanningley with a population of 21,334 at the 2011 Census. The area is an old industrial area with much 19th century archit ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
, the son of John Ernest Appleyard, a successful motor engineer, and Mary Elizabeth Northrop.
His brother
Ian
Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...
became a successful rally driver. Geoffrey grew up in
Linton, West Yorkshire
Linton is a village south-west of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, England, in the parish of Collingham and the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. At the 2011 Census the village fell within the Harewood ward of the City of Leeds Council. It lies ...
,
and was educated at
Bootham School
Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England.
The schoo ...
in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, where he combined academic success with natural history and roof-climbing. At
Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...
, he obtained a
first
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
in Engineering and a
skiing blue, while he was also his college's Captain of Boats, and competed as a highly successful international skier.
Military service
Appleyard was commissioned into the
Royal Army Service Corps (Supplementary Reserve) on 1 April 1939 with the rank of
second lieutenant. Mobilised for active service on 24 August 1939,
he commanded an RASC mobile motor repair workshop as part of the
British Expeditionary Force in northern France. During the
Battle of France he was ordered to destroy all his vehicles, and then was
evacuated from Dunkirk.
Appleyard volunteered to join the Commandos in late 1940,
and was posted to B Troop,
No. 7 Commando
No. 7 Commando was a unit of the British Commandos and part of the British Army during the Second World War. The commando was formed in August 1940 in the United Kingdom. No. 7 Commando was transferred to the Middle East as part of Layforce. Commi ...
.
He was promoted to the war substantive rank of
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
on 1 January 1941
and, in May, now an acting captain, was awarded the
Military Cross
The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.
The MC ...
for his "gallant and distinguished services in the field", after taking part in an operation by boat and submarine to pick up two
Operation Savanna agents on the coast of France and bring them back to England.
Appleyard then served aboard the
ketch
A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...
-rigged
Brixham trawler
A Brixham trawler is a type of wooden, deep-sea fishing trawler first built in Brixham in Devon, England, in the 19th century and known for its high speed. The design was copied by boat builders around Britain, and some were sold to fishermen ...
''Maid Honor'', which sailed to the coast of West Africa, spending six months reporting on enemy submarine activity and carrying out clandestine raids.
The highlight of the assignment was
Operation Postmaster, in which the Italian liner ''
Duchessa d'Aosta'' and the German tug ''Likomba'' were boarded and towed from the neutral Spanish island of
Fernando Po and taken to Nigeria. On his return he was awarded a
Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
to his Military Cross.
After the success of "Postmaster", the "Maid Honor Force" was expanded (though it never numbered more than 55 men at any time) and renamed the "Small Scale Raiding Force", though its official designation was
No. 62 Commando, under the operational control of
Combined Operations Headquarters
Combined Operations Headquarters was a department of the British War Office set up during Second World War to harass the Germans on the European continent by means of raids carried out by use of combined naval and army forces.
History
The comm ...
.
Appleyard took part in many SSRF raids on the coast of occupied France, landing in small boats from motor launches, compelling the Germans to reinforce their defences along hundreds of miles of coastline, and diverting significant numbers of troops from combat duties elsewhere.
However, an injury prevented him from going ashore in the disastrous
Operation Aquatint
Operation Aquatint was the codename for a failed raid by British Commandos on the coast of occupied France during the Second World War. The raid was undertaken in September 1942 on part of what later became Omaha Beach by No. 62 Commando, als ...
, on 12 September 1942, when an attack at
Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes
Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Aure sur Mer.
History World War II
On 13 September 1942 13 British ...
, Normandy, went badly wrong and half the 10-man force were captured, and the other half killed, including the SSRF's commanding officer Major
Gustavus March-Phillipps.
Its failure stemmed in part from Appleyard mistaking the landing beach, though he never knew that.
Appleyard took command of the SSRF,
and led 10 men of the SSRF and
No. 12 Commando,
on
Operation Basalt
Operation Basalt was a small British raid conducted during World War II on Sark during the German occupation of the Channel Islands.
The objective of the raid was of offensive reconnaissance and capturing prisoners.
1st Attempt
The original ...
, landing on the Channel island of
Sark
Sark (french: link=no, Sercq, ; Sercquiais: or ) is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of ...
on the night of 3/4 October 1942. Five Germans were taken prisoner, but when one shouted a warning he was shot dead. With the enemy now alerted, the raiders returned to the beach with the remaining four prisoners. En route, three of them attempted to escape and were killed. As a result, an enraged Hitler issued the infamous ''Kommandobefehl'' ("
Commando Order"), stating that all captured Commandos were to be shot without exception.
Further operations followed, and on 15 December 1942 Appleyard was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...
. On meeting the now Temporary Major Appleyard at his third investiture in eleven months,
King George VI was both amused and impressed, greeting him with: "What, you again?"
Death
The SSRF was disbanded in April 1943,
but many of its members were transferred to Algeria, where they formed the nucleus of Bill Stirling's new 2nd
Special Air Service, of which Appleyard was appointed second-in-command. On the night of 12/13 July 1943, during the
Allied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It b ...
, Appleyard supervised the dropping of a group of SAS paratroopers north of
Randazzo
Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta.
Randazzo ( scn, Rannazzu) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy. It is situated at the northern foot of Mount Etna, c. northwest of Catania. It is the nearest ...
in
Operation Chestnut. The
Albemarle aircraft disappeared on the return flight over the Mediterranean, and Appleyard was declared missing presumed dead.
It had probably been shot down by friendly fire. He is commemorated at the
Cassino Memorial
Cassino () is a ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Southern Italy, at the southern end of the region of Lazio, the last city of the Latin Valley.
Cassino is located at the foot of Monte Cairo near the confluence of the Gari and Liri riv ...
.
Describing him,
Vladimir "Popski" Peniakoff said, "He was one of the few officers who had developed the technique of the small scale raid: the care he took of his men made him stand out among brother officers who were too excited by the prospect of adventure to think of anybody, but their own selves."
See also
*
List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea
Throughout history, people have mysteriously disappeared at sea, many on voyages aboard floating vessels or traveling via aircraft. The following is a list of known individuals who have mysteriously vanished in open waters, and whose whereabouts r ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Appleyard, Geoffrey
1916 births
1940s missing person cases
1943 deaths
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
British Army Commandos officers
British Army personnel killed in World War II
Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Missing in action of World War II
Missing person cases in Italy
Military personnel killed by friendly fire
People educated at Bootham School
People lost at sea
Recipients of the Military Cross
Royal Army Service Corps officers
Special Air Service officers
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters
Military personnel from Leeds