Don's subsequent musical career

Some of the other members of the band of 14AOD went on to perform regularly after the war. But as far as I remember, Don played mainly for his own amusement. I would guess this photo was taken at an office party or similar. The recorders and abundance of percussion instruments shows that this was not a serious musical ensemble. It looks like the guy with glasses to the left at the back is playing a tea chest bass. Interestingly, Don's guitar is seen fitted with a pick-up and that looks like a lead trailing down from where the neck joins the body, so perhaps he was playing electric. This pick-up used to sit in his guitar case, but I do not remember it ever being used. I still have it, but I understand it is not in working order.

The only time I remember Don playing a proper gig was in the early 1960s when we had a visit out of the blue from his cousin Bernard Saward. (Dad's side of the family was not particularly close-knit. We lived in Abbey Wood and Bernard in Eltham, but I only met him twice.) Bernard was a drummer and amongst other things he had played with Humphrey Lyttelton in the early 1950s. He persuaded Don to sit in with him for a session - I think it was at a pub called the Royal Oak - but that was only a one-off. Incidentally, Don and Bernard recorded some acetates in 1938. I shall say more abou them later.

Don & Frank plus one

Frank Simpson is seated and Don Mackie is to his right. Again, medal ribbons indicate that the picture was taken after V.E. Day. I do not know who the gentleman on the left is.

The picture surfaced in the "Crown Lane" archive, so possibly it was included in a letter home from Don to his mother. For more about Crown Lane and Don's family, see my family history blog http://mackiegenealogy.blogspot.com/

Royal Observer Corps lapel badge

This is not strictly relevant to the history of the band of 14AOD, but it does complement the previous post showing the ROC medal.

Don's Gongs

Left to right we have the 1939-1945 Star, France & Germany Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-1945 and Royal Observer Corps Medal & bar. The first four were earned during WWII. The ROC medal came much later. Don was a part-time member of the ROC. He did not claim his war medals until the 1960s when he was selected to represent the ROC at the Festival of Remembrance. We also see here the check list that accompanied the medals. For more information on WWII medals, I would recommend http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/wwii_medals.htm

Sweetheart Brooch?

I think this is a sweetheart brooch, but I stand to be corrected. Any clips or fastenings on the back are now missing. The inscriptions read "Honi soit qui mal y pense" and "Royal Army Ordnance Corps".

Alliiertre Militarbehorde

This 1/2 mark note from 1944 was tucked away in the back of Don's service & pay book.

Don & Frank, Christmas 1944

Here we see Don Mackie and Frank Simpson with what must be a French family. The picture has been trimmed down so part of the manuscript on the back has been lost, but I think it reads "Bon Souvenir, Noel 1944, H.H. Sicol". Don and Frank would have been in Caen at this time and they are wearing jerkins very similar to those seen in Major Lee-Richardson's book. I presume H.H. Sicol is one of the people seen here, or a relative. It does not seem to be a very common surname; even google.fr finds very little. Pure speculation on my part, but maybe Don and Frank were billeted with this family.

Glinde

We know that 14AOD went to Glinde after V.E. Day. There was previously a German ordnance depot at Glinde and it would be logical for the British army to take over the facilities there for its own purposes. A search of the web turns up a lot of information about US Air Force bombing missions over Germany.

http://libraryautomation.com/nymas/usaaf7.html
453rd Bombardment Group - 460th Bombardment Group
453rd Bombardment Group
Constituted as 453rd Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 14 May 1943. Activated on 1 Jun 1943. Trained with B-14's. Moved to England, Dec 1943-Jan 1944, and assigned to Eighth AF. Began combat on 5 Feb 1944 with an attack against an airfield at Tours. Throughout combat, served chiefly as a strategic bombardment organization. Targets included a fuel depot at Dulmen, marshalling yards at Paderborn, aircraft assembly plants at Gotha, railroad centers at Hamm, an ordnance depot at Glinde, oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen, chemical works at Leverkusen, an airfield at Neumunster, a canal at Minden, and a railroad viaduct at Altenbeken.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Old_Buckenham

http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/aprilskies/264/missions.html
This is specific about the date.
MISSIONS FLOWN BY THE 453rd
MISSION NUMBER DATE TARGET
156 10/06/44 Glinde, Germany – Ordnance Depot
(The date is in American format i.e. October 6th)

http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/Oct.44.html
This confirms the date and also tells us the number of B-24s involved, but the reference to a "munitions dumb" (dump?) at Glind appears inaccurate. All other sources refer to it as an ordnance depot.
USAAF Chronology:COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
OCTOBER 1944
FRIDAY, 6 OCTOBER 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown. Mission 667: 1,271 bombers and 784 fighter are dispatched to hitindustrial targets in N Germany; with one exception, all attacks are visual;19 bombers and 4 fighters are lost:
3. 406 B-24s are dispatched to hit Harburg/Rhenania oil refinery (121) withPFF methods, munitions dumb at Hamburg/Glinde (89) and aircraft factories atHamburg/Klockner (79) and Wenzendorf (46); targets of opportunity are StadeAirfield (29), the Hamburg area (8), Nordhoz Airfield (2), Bremervorde (1)and Ottersberg (1); 1 B-24 is lost and 127 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 2 WIAand 10 MIA. Escort is provided by 156 of 168 P-47s; they claim 1-0-0 aircraftin the air; 6 P-47s are damaged.

http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/tme30/ch6sec2.html
This is taken from U.S. War Department Technical Manual, TM-E 30-451: Handbook on German Military Forces published in March 1945 and details the system of supply within Germany. It tells us specifically that Hamburg-Glinde was an army equipment depot, and such depots did not furnish ammunition.

Google searches also bring up something about Advanced Base Ordnance Depot (Glinde) Hamburg on the Forces Reunited website, but I cannot get in to their system without registering.

Don Mackie's Guitar

This is Don's guitar. It is a 1930s vintage Radiotone. Clearly he did not take it with him during his service with 14AOD, as it does not appear in any of the photos of the band. It had a very high action which made it quite difficult to play; in later years Don played mainly a nylon-string guitar which was much kinder on the fingers. When he died in 1982, my mother was reluctant to part with it, so it spent 22 years at the bottom of a wardrobe. When I retrieved it, it was not in the best condition. The back had started to split from the sides, there was a nasty crack on the front, the tailpiece was broken and the pick guard had crumbled. I took it to Graham Noden, who has a repair workshop in the basement of Andy's Guitar Shop in Denmark Street, London. Graham did an excellent job of restoring it and I think it now plays much better than I remember it when dad was alive. You can read more about Graham here
http://www.andysguitarnet.com/about-us/about-us.html

Don Mackie's Soldier's Service & Pay Book

This document largely speaks for itself. Of particular relevance to the history of the band of 14AOD, we see that Don was passed fit for overseas service on 19 October 1944. From 22 October 1944, he was classed as both a location clerk and a musician. These dates match the known history of 14AOD being sent to France after D-Day. They also indicate that when the army sent 14AOD overseas, the dance band was an intentional element. 14AOD was drawn from different parts of the RAOC. I do not know the previous history of the rest of the band, but Don was previously based at Old Dalby (it was there that he met Eileen Bailey, the future Mrs Mackie) and Claude Page was at Chilwell.

In performance in Hamburg

Denis Harper & Bert Hunt playing at Hamburg




The Five in Jive

These two were kindly supplied by Denis Harper's wife Jean. They show members of the band in performance. In contrast to the formal postcard prints, the musicians are in mufti rather than army uniform. I have shown beneath each photo the caption written on the back. Although Denis was accordionist with the Band of 14AOD, he was also an accomplished pianist. The "Five in Jive" picture is interesting as it corresponds to the personnel seen in the Glinde photos and also on the recording of "Dinah", further evidence that these members of the band sometimes performed as a quintet.

Don's guitar is an interesting detail. It is a flat top with a round sound hole. Compare this with the postcard prints, where we see him with an archtop with f-holes. Neither of these was his own guitar (which I still have - more on that later.) Someone has suggested that the archtop is a Gibson Cromwell, although the logo on the pegboard is indistinct. I can understand that Don would not have wanted to take his own guitar on overseas service, but how did the band acquire the instruments they used in France and Germany? As far as I can tell Denis's accordion, Ted's drum kit and even the white chairs are the same. What happened to the guitar?

"Ralph" in Glinde

The top picture shows Don Mackie with two saxophonists. That's Art Sutton on the left, this time with a tenor. (On the recordings I have, he plays only alto and clarinet.) The altoist does not appear in any of the other photos. On the back of the full-length picture, Don has written "This is Ralph." He is absent from the Arromanches photo and he is not wearing medal ribbons, while Don, Ted and Denis are. This indicates he was not with 14AOD in Caen but joined them only when they reached Glinde. Is he the second saxophone heard on "American Patrol"?

14AOD in Glinde

After V.E. Day, 14AOD moved to Glinde, near Hamburg, to handle returned ordnance. This is a series of informal pictures which I presume was taken in Glinde, as some of the men are wearing medal ribbons for the 1939-1945 and France & Germany stars. We see only five of the members of the band here. These correspond to the quintet heard on one of the recordings and a photo - to be published here later - of the band in performance. I believe these photos were included with letters home from Don to his wife Eileen. Where applicable, I have included the notes he made on the back.





3 Stooges (Arthur - Teddy - DJM)
(Wipe that smile off your face!)


3 Stooges again.
(I'll let you have a better one when we make an enlargement)



3 Heroes.
(That's Denis in the middle - bless his little 'eart)



Inseperables



Just reading through one of your letters here
(That's Eileen in the picture on the window sill.)

Paris Leave

According to their families, Denis Harper and Claude Page saw the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Paris in December 1944. (This was, of course, shortly after Miller had gone missing, but the band went ahead with the concerts anyway.) I don't remember Dad ever mentioning this so perhaps he wasn't there, but we see him here at the Palais de Chaillot. That's him, just below the statue. Two places to his right is Frank Simpson (without hat). These are the only two I recognise.

VE Day, 8 May 1945 - Arromanches

I understand from Claude Page's son that this is a VE Day celebration at Arromanches, which is about 2-3 miles from Bayeux, featured in the previous post.
This is an intriguing picture as the band of 14AOD is augmented by another seven bodies. Of those holding instruments, we see a violin, another accordion and two more trumpets or cornets. Three others are not holding instruments. It looks as if Ted Willmott is making do with just a snare drum; maybe it was tricky to get a whole drum kit down to the beach.

VE Day, 8 June 1945 - Bayeux

This is a VE Day service of thanksgiving. Whilst none of the members of the band are visible in this picture, I have a copy of it, as do relatives of Denis Harper and Claude Page, so I guess they were there. Bayeux is about 7 miles from Caen, were 14AOD was based.

The 78s - Decelith 8" - Part 2

There are four discs with the printed number 416 7. As stated in the previous post, it is very difficult to read the hand-written titles so I have only posted one sample picture here.

"Oh Lady Be Good"/"Liebestraum"
These sound like "live" performances as some crowd noise is evident. Liebestraum features trumpet, accordion and piano, but Sutton is sitting this one out as there is no sax or clarinet.

"There Goes That Song Again"/"At the Woodchoppers Ball"
The first side features an unknown male vocalist. As vocals go, they are just about passable, so I imagine it is one of the band doubling up, rather than a "proper" singer. I suspect it is Art Sutton, as the trumpet part continues behind the vocals (so it cannot be Claude), while the sax is silent. Definitely not Don or Denis and very unlikely to be Ted.

"Adios Muchachos"/"Dinah"
The first side is an accordion feature with no trumpet or reeds. The second side is made up of clarinet, accordion, guitar, bass and drums. This matches a photo (yet to be posted) entitled "The Five in Jive" which indicates that some members of the band played at times as a quintet.

"Liebestraum"/"Song of the Steppes"
The arrangement of Liebestraum is the same as for the "live" version above.

The 78s - Decelith 8" - Part 1

This has 418 12 on the label on the front, indicating it is separate from the other Decelith 8" discs, which carry a different number. There is a plain black label on the B side. Deciphering the labelling of individual discs was a bit of a challenge - pencil on black paper does not exactly stand out. The two titles here are "Georgia" and "I'm in the Mood for Love". Instrumentation is trumpet and guitar only.

The 78s - Decelith 10"

The two sides are labelled II/1 and II/2. This hints at a possible missing disc that would have been I/1 & 2.

Side one shows "? Title". This is in fact "Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider)" although it took me a while to identify it as it is quite an ornamented rendition. Does anyone recognise the arrangement?

Side Two should strictly be "I'll Remember April". The title is written in my father's hand. There is also a pencil note "not good, play fast". It is a rather mournful and bass-heavy performance but there is nothing to indicate the running speed is too slow.

The 78s - Reichsrundfunk

These are 10" discs made of flexible material. They seem very similar to the Decelith discs (entry to follow). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record which includes an illustration of a Decelith blank used for self recording. Reichsrundfunk was the German national broadcasting service and no doubt used Decelith discs with their own brand on the label. It also strongly indicates that the recordings were made when 14AOD was in Glinde near Hamburg. The dates stamped are too early to be recording dates - the band was not in exisitence until late 1944 and did not reach Germany until after V.E. Day in 1945 - so I would guess these are dates of manufacture of the blanks.

"Bededo!!" should of course be "Perdido". This sounds like a "live" recording. There is a bit of crowd noise. Someone announces the tune and invites the audience to "Take your partners for a quickstep - gents' excuse me!" (not a phrase one hears much nowadays).

On the flip side (the label is blank so not reproduced here) is a rendition of the Glenn Miller classic "American Patrol". And yes, I do know the tune is much older - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Meacham. The instrumental line-up here is interesting; this is the only 14AOD recording where I am sure I can hear a second saxophone. I have some photos that I shall post later showing the band had another saxophonist identified only as Ralph. That may be him we can hear. And the saxes are playing a supporting role - none of the fancy solos we usually hear from Sutton.

"Alexander's Rag Time Band" sounds like the whole band. Turn the disc over and we have two songs on one side - an unknown female vocalist accompanied only by guitar and bass. I have no clue at all who the singer is.

Researching these recordings has taught me a lot about the music of the time - it wasn't all Glenn Miller - and "Cow Cow Boogie" led me to Ella Mae Morse, a very talented recording artist of the 1940s and 1950s who is largely forgotten today. There are some clips of her on Youtube - check them out.

The 78s - Army Welfare Services - Part 2

These are 12" acetates. They feature only four members of the band.

Strictly speaking, the title of the first tune is "Oh, Lady Be Good". "These Foolish Things" is a guitar solo; note the transition chord sequences at the beginning an end to accommodate the key changes. I can't find anything elsewhere about the three tunes "The Trees and The River" etc. and presume they were self-penned numbers. I would guess that "Out of the Mood" was a nod towards Glenn Miller's "In the Mood." Although the label credits only Sutton and Mackie on this disc, bass is also audible on side two.

"12 Bar Blues" is exactly what it says. I presume it is the band's own arrangement. It features alto/clarinet, guitar, bass and drums only. A spoken introduction on the other side tells us that "Teddy Willmott and Frank Simpson give you their version of Big Noise from Winnetka". This is the classic early drum'n'bass ('n'whistlin') tune by Bob Haggart and Ray Bauduc. There are currently several versions of this tune on YouTube, including two videos of Haggart & Bauduc - an early duet and a later version with the Bob Crosby Orchestra.

The 78s - Army Welfare Services - Part 1

These are 12" discs made of a red translucent material (which has now become rather sticky). They are labelled in my father's handwriting. The first disc is the only place that I have found a specific reference to "The Band of 14AOD" with a complete list of personnel. I consider these the definitive recordings as they feature the whole band on all tracks. Some others - which I shall detail later - featured small groups or other musicians.

"You've Got Me Where You Want Me" was a very modern song at the time, a recording by Judy Garland and Bing Crosby was released in July 1944. Lyrics are by Johnny Mercer and music by Harry Warren. If you want to sing along, you can find the lyrics here http://www.harrywarren.org/songs/0641.htm This is the definitive site for all things to do with Harry Warren.

"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" sounds a lot like the Artie Shaw arrangement.

"A Sultan Goes to Harlem" was written by Carl Barriteau - a clarinettist like Shaw. Given that 14AOD band leader Art Sutton played clarinet and saxophone, it is perhaps not surprising that their repertoire drew on the work of other reed players. In the original version the "call and response" section of the tune has the orchestra echoing Barriteau's solo clarinet lines. But 14AOD had a more limited line-up and their response is made by members of the band scatting.

"Boston Bounce" was written by Denis Berry and recorded by Harry Leader. There is currently a Vocalion CD of Harry Leader available, which has Boston Bounce as the title track. I have this and I was particularly impressed by the backing vocals on "Sailor, Where Art Thou?"