PF CARD
FILE: N.A.
NAME: Wardley, John.
BORN: 25-03-1922, West Horsley, Surrey, England
EDUCATION:
OCCUPATION:
ARRIVED IN ENGLAND: N.A.
ORGANISATION: SAS.
TRAINED AS: Agent.
TO THE FIELD:
MISSION: KEYSTONE
DROPPED AT:
NEAR:
DROPPED WITH:
OVERRUN:
PLACE:
RETURNED TO ENGLAND:
AFTER MISSION REPORT: N.A.
ARRESTED: N.A.
PRISONS: N.A.
DIED: 28-09-2020
PLACE: Puttenham, England.
ALIAS: N.A.
NAMES IN THE FIELD:
RADIOPLANS:
CRYSTALS:
SET:
PREFIX:
CUTOUT: N.A.
WITH ORGANIZATION:
CONTACTS:
SAFEHOUSES:
TX LOCATIONS:
WT-OPERATOR(S):
SOURCES:
REMARKS: John Wardley, who has died aged 98, was part of an SAS mission that parachuted into enemy-occupied Holland in the Second World War.
In April 1945 Wardley, a lieutenant with 2nd SAS Regiment, took part in Operation Keystone. This consisted of an advance three-man recce team followed by airborne and jeep-mounted teams that formed fighting patrols to carry out sabotage in the central Netherlands.
On the night of April 11 1945, Wardley was stick commander in an SAS group of 17 men commanded by Captain Dick Holland MC. With orders to disorganise the Germans in the area south of the IJsselmeer, they were dropped near the towns of Nijkerk, Putten and Voorthuizen, about 30 miles east of Amsterdam.
Poor weather conditions prevented the dropping of jeeps and they had to carry out sabotage raids on foot. They made contact with members of the Dutch Resistance whose courage, resilience and local knowledge proved of great value. One of Wardley’s group, Sergeant Jaap Snatager, a member of the Dutch SAS detachment, was Jewish and was already wanted by the Germans. Wardley’s party was involved in a series of firefights, in the course of which they placed explosive charges on railway tracks, shot up a freight train and spent a whole day on the run from the enemy. A 32-man SAS jeep party, led by Major Henry Druce DSO, managed to break through the German lines and met up with Captain Holland. Elements of both groups then took part in Operation Archway. Formed of reinforced squadrons from the 1st and 2nd SAS Regiments, it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Brian Franks DSO, MC. Known as Frankforce, it carried out deep penetration of enemy lines in support of Allied units.
Wardley crossed the Elbe on April 19. In one incident, a member of the Hitler Youth pretending to surrender mortally wounded Wardley’s troop commander. After V-E Day Wardley, who had been slightly wounded in the neck in the last phase of the operation, transferred to the Intelligence Corps in Berlin.
William John Wardley was born on March 25 1922 and grew up in the Surrey village of West Horsley. His father had served with the Imperial Yeomanry in the Second Boer War and in France in the First World War. His mother was a nurse in a field hospital in France from 1915 to 1918 and was Mentioned in Despatches.
Always known as John, he was educated at Charterhouse but left aged 17 because he believed that the outbreak of war was imminent. He was, however, too young to join up so in late 1939 he sailed for Australia to work on a relation’s sheep station. Soon afterwards, he added two years to his age and enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force.
Posted to the newly raised 2/14th Infantry Battalion, he embarked for Egypt that October and after further training in Palestine, in April 1941 he moved to the Libyan border. The following month his Battalion returned to Palestine to prepare for the invasion of Vichy-held Syria and Lebanon.
On a night reconnaissance, his guide was Moshe Dayan, the future Israeli military leader. The 2/14th crossed the Syrian border in the early hours of June 8 and Wardley saw heavy fighting before an armistice brought an end to the campaign the following month.
He attended an Octu and, in September 1943 he was commissioned and posted to the 14/20th King’s Hussars who were guarding Iraqi and Persian oilfields. While on leave in England he transferred to the Parachute Regiment and was accepted into 2nd SAS Regiment early in 1945.
After the war, he joined the re-formed 21st SAS Regiment (Artists Rifles) TA and he was commissioned in 1948. He subsequently moved to Canada, where he married. In Northern Ontario, he was in charge of a stretch of the Distant Early Warning Line, a radar system that would provide early warning of attack by enemy bombers.
After returning to England with his wife Marguerite and their baby daughter, he worked for an engineering company. Settled in Puttenham, a village near Guildford, he was the best of company and a stalwart supporter of his local community.
He took part in the SAS’s 75th anniversary celebrations in 2016 at Hereford when he and his wife were presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
John Wardley married, in 1959, Marguerite Sebbage, who survives him with their daughter. A son predeceased him.
John Wardley, born March 25 1922, died September 28 2020
RELEASED:
COMPLETE:
© Weggum
w.mugge@home.nl
Datum: 12-11-2020
NAME: Wardley, John.
BORN: 25-03-1922, West Horsley, Surrey, England
EDUCATION:
OCCUPATION:
ARRIVED IN ENGLAND: N.A.
ORGANISATION: SAS.
TRAINED AS: Agent.
TO THE FIELD:
MISSION: KEYSTONE
DROPPED AT:
NEAR:
DROPPED WITH:
OVERRUN:
PLACE:
RETURNED TO ENGLAND:
AFTER MISSION REPORT: N.A.
ARRESTED: N.A.
PRISONS: N.A.
DIED: 28-09-2020
PLACE: Puttenham, England.
ALIAS: N.A.
NAMES IN THE FIELD:
RADIOPLANS:
CRYSTALS:
SET:
PREFIX:
CUTOUT: N.A.
WITH ORGANIZATION:
CONTACTS:
SAFEHOUSES:
TX LOCATIONS:
WT-OPERATOR(S):
SOURCES:
REMARKS: John Wardley, who has died aged 98, was part of an SAS mission that parachuted into enemy-occupied Holland in the Second World War.
In April 1945 Wardley, a lieutenant with 2nd SAS Regiment, took part in Operation Keystone. This consisted of an advance three-man recce team followed by airborne and jeep-mounted teams that formed fighting patrols to carry out sabotage in the central Netherlands.
On the night of April 11 1945, Wardley was stick commander in an SAS group of 17 men commanded by Captain Dick Holland MC. With orders to disorganise the Germans in the area south of the IJsselmeer, they were dropped near the towns of Nijkerk, Putten and Voorthuizen, about 30 miles east of Amsterdam.
Poor weather conditions prevented the dropping of jeeps and they had to carry out sabotage raids on foot. They made contact with members of the Dutch Resistance whose courage, resilience and local knowledge proved of great value. One of Wardley’s group, Sergeant Jaap Snatager, a member of the Dutch SAS detachment, was Jewish and was already wanted by the Germans. Wardley’s party was involved in a series of firefights, in the course of which they placed explosive charges on railway tracks, shot up a freight train and spent a whole day on the run from the enemy. A 32-man SAS jeep party, led by Major Henry Druce DSO, managed to break through the German lines and met up with Captain Holland. Elements of both groups then took part in Operation Archway. Formed of reinforced squadrons from the 1st and 2nd SAS Regiments, it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Brian Franks DSO, MC. Known as Frankforce, it carried out deep penetration of enemy lines in support of Allied units.
Wardley crossed the Elbe on April 19. In one incident, a member of the Hitler Youth pretending to surrender mortally wounded Wardley’s troop commander. After V-E Day Wardley, who had been slightly wounded in the neck in the last phase of the operation, transferred to the Intelligence Corps in Berlin.
William John Wardley was born on March 25 1922 and grew up in the Surrey village of West Horsley. His father had served with the Imperial Yeomanry in the Second Boer War and in France in the First World War. His mother was a nurse in a field hospital in France from 1915 to 1918 and was Mentioned in Despatches.
Always known as John, he was educated at Charterhouse but left aged 17 because he believed that the outbreak of war was imminent. He was, however, too young to join up so in late 1939 he sailed for Australia to work on a relation’s sheep station. Soon afterwards, he added two years to his age and enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force.
Posted to the newly raised 2/14th Infantry Battalion, he embarked for Egypt that October and after further training in Palestine, in April 1941 he moved to the Libyan border. The following month his Battalion returned to Palestine to prepare for the invasion of Vichy-held Syria and Lebanon.
On a night reconnaissance, his guide was Moshe Dayan, the future Israeli military leader. The 2/14th crossed the Syrian border in the early hours of June 8 and Wardley saw heavy fighting before an armistice brought an end to the campaign the following month.
He attended an Octu and, in September 1943 he was commissioned and posted to the 14/20th King’s Hussars who were guarding Iraqi and Persian oilfields. While on leave in England he transferred to the Parachute Regiment and was accepted into 2nd SAS Regiment early in 1945.
After the war, he joined the re-formed 21st SAS Regiment (Artists Rifles) TA and he was commissioned in 1948. He subsequently moved to Canada, where he married. In Northern Ontario, he was in charge of a stretch of the Distant Early Warning Line, a radar system that would provide early warning of attack by enemy bombers.
After returning to England with his wife Marguerite and their baby daughter, he worked for an engineering company. Settled in Puttenham, a village near Guildford, he was the best of company and a stalwart supporter of his local community.
He took part in the SAS’s 75th anniversary celebrations in 2016 at Hereford when he and his wife were presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
John Wardley married, in 1959, Marguerite Sebbage, who survives him with their daughter. A son predeceased him.
John Wardley, born March 25 1922, died September 28 2020
RELEASED:
COMPLETE:
© Weggum
w.mugge@home.nl
Datum: 12-11-2020