1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment 1944-45 - Awards and Citations

WS/Major Thomas Frederick HUGHES (58523)

Freddie Hughes as he was known was recommended by Lieut.-Col. M. R. J. Hope-Thomson on the 26th February 1945 for an immediate Distinguished Service Order.

Distinguished Service Order (London Gazette date 3rd May 1945)

Citation:

“During operation VERITABLE the Battalion was constantly in action SOUTH of CLEVES for several days and nights and for most of this time this officer’s Company was in the thick of the fighting. He received orders for six separate attacks, in each case he had very short time to make his plan and in each case he saw it through to a successful conclusion despite the heaviest mortaring and shelling and the bitterest opposition. On 16th February 1945, in the first action he led his Company through the pitch darkness of a stormy night and the unceasing fire of the defending troops into an assault on a key village which completely surprised and eradicated the enemy.

For the next few days with bravery and resourcefulness he coolly led his Company from success to success. He never avoided the heaviest of the fighting if he thought it was there he could best control the battle. It was through his personal achievements that his utterly exhausted men kept going throughout the advance of over 6000 yards. He frequently took the decision to continue to advance when the enemy was strong on the ground in front of him and holding up our troops on the flanks, and it was these decisions (which often through force of circumstances had to be taken without direction from his C.O.) and the brilliant way in which he saw they were executed, that secured the success of the whole operation.”

 

Background:

Thomas Frederick Hughes was born on the 15th March 1914. Son of Captain Thomas Hector Hughes who served with the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in the First World War - killed in action on the 15th October 1914 at the battle of La Bassée.

Major T. F. Hughes

He joined the Supplementary Reserve of The Worcestershire Regiment in 1933. In 1935 he was granted a Regular Commission in the Indian Army and was posted to the Royal Norfolk Regiment at Jhansi for a year's attachment on the Unattached List of the Indian Army. In 1936 he applied for transfer to the British Army and was granted a regular commission in The Worcestershire Regiment (11th March 1936), joining the 2nd Battalion on its arrival at Sialkot, India, from Tientsin at the end of 1936.

He served with the 2nd Battalion from 1936 to 1939, including a short tour on the North West Frontier and was appointed Station Staff Officer at Solon. He was on leave in U.K. at the outbreak of war and transferred with other officers to the Regimental Depot. Shortly after the outbreak of war he was appointed Instructor at 164 Officer Cadet Training Unit, of which he subsequently became Adjutant.

In 1941 he was posted to the 11th Battalion of the Regiment, until being appointed G.S.O. III (Air) at H.Q. 1 Corps, and later as G.S.O. II to an Army/Air Support Control Unit. After graduating at the Staff College in 1943, he was appointed Brigade Major of 143 Infantry Brigade, 48 Division. The following year he was appointed Commandant, 48 Divisional Battle school and on the 17th November 1944 he joined the 1st Battalion as a Company Commander ('A' Company) in North West Europe. He was wounded on almost the last day of Operation "VERITABLE" on the Rhine on the 8th March 1945.

In January 1946, he was appointed G.S.O. II (Ops.) H.Q. 30 British Corps at Niemburg and subsequently at Luneburg. In the autumn of 1946 he was appointed British Army Instructor at the South African Military College, Roberts Heights, Pretoria, until the end of 1948. In 1949 he rejoined the 1st Battalion, then in Berlin as Company Commander during the Berlin Air Lift, and later at Gottingen. At the end of 1949 he was appointed to the staff of H.Q. Rhine Army at Bad Oeynhausen.

From 1951-53 he was D.A.A.G. and D.A.Q.M.G. at the War Office. In 1953 he was appointed A.A. & Q.M.G. 44th (Home Counties) Division (T.A.) at Shorncliffe, Kent. He rejoined the 1st Battalion, then at Iserlohn, B.A.O.R., in early 1956, first as a Company Commander, then as Second in Command of the 1st Battalion. He assumed command in November 1956. He commanded the 1st Battalion for almost the whole of its tour in the Caribbean from 1957 to 1959 and then appointed A.A.G. Western Command, Chester, in July 1959.

He was promoted Colonel in 1960 on assuming the appointment of Colonel A/Q. H.Q. 1 British Corps in Germany, which appointment he held for the next three years. In 1963 he was posted to the Malaysian Armed Forces at the Malaysian Ministry of Defence, Kuala Lumpur. He retired from the Army on 8th June 1966 after 31 years service, and on 8th April he again flew out to Singapore to assume the appointment of R.O. III (Quartering) G. H.Q. FARELF.

Colonel Freddie Hughes died on the 1st November 1985, age 71.

 

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