Author: Lt Col (Retd) Steve Colling, Corps Historian

There were four British Corps operating in the campaign for North-West Europe: 1, 8, 12 and 30 Corps (you will often find these written as I, VIII, XII and XXX Corps). 53 Infantry Troops Workshop REME was a 12 Corps asset, nominally in support of 53 (Welsh) Infantry Division. The Division landed in Normandy at the end of June. By September, the Division was playing a part in Operation Market Garden.

In the late Summer and early Autumn, the Allied advance picked up pace. On 4 September, 53 Inf Tps Wksp was at Briot having crossed the Seine a few days earlier. By 13 September, it was at Londerzel, north of Brussels. For much of 1944, the Allied forces were reliant on combat supplies coming across the channel and being carried forward from Normandy along expanding Lines of Communication (LoC). Delivering fuel, ammunition and rations and maintaining equipment became challenging and matters would not improve before the Port of Antwerp was reopened in November.

The official war diary of 53 Inf Tps Wksp, 1-4 September 1944.

The diary page above shows that the unit was commanded by Major Sydney Charles Houghton ‘Sammy’ Davis. He was quite a character. Davis was over 50 when he joined the Royal Armoured Ordnance Corps (RAOC) when the war broke out and transferred to REME when the Corps formed in 1942. Before then, he had served in the Royal Naval Air Service armoured car section in the Great War and became a motoring correspondent and racing driver between the wars. He famously won the 24 Hours at Le Mans outright in 1927.

SCH ‘Sammy’ Davis, 1887 – 1981. Source: Agence Rol, Bibliothèque Nationale de France collection, public domain.

Davis wrote of his wartime experiences in a book called A Racing Motorist (SCH Davis, Illfe & Son, 1949).

“There at Briot I had to leave the workshop that had absorbed so much energy and provided so much that was interesting and join the staff of Lt Col Girdlestone as second in command, general factotum or stooge. It had taken a lot of persuasion to accept this and a deal of argument within oneself, but it turned out to be even more fun than ever. But I shall never forget 806 Infantry Troops Workshop as 53 had now become officially. Without the enthusiasm which marked all the units years ago at the start, the men none the less were very likeable and they did a darned good job of work in their peculiar way…”

Due to his age on joining up, he joked that he was in ‘Age and Service Group -1’ and he would have been one of the first to be discharged at the end of the war.

His motor racing interests continued after the war, writing a number of articles for the REME Magazine, the forerunner of the Craftsman Magazine. He went on to become president of the Aston Martin Owners Club in 1935.

An article on motor racing from Davis, signed off ‘S.C.H.D’, in the 1946 issue of the REME Magazine.

Sydney Charles Houghton Davis died in 1981, aged 94, following a traffic accident.

During operations in North-West Europe, the Order of Battle (ORBAT) was in constant flux. Divisions moved between Corps’ and this created difficulties for the logisticians. Eventually, Division Workshops lost their divisional allegiance, were ‘brigaded’ and managed at Corps level. This allowed workshops to ‘leap-frog’ forward.  There would always be at least one open and supporting the Corps while the other two moved closer to the action.

The official war diary of 53 Inf Tps Wksp, 6-27 September 1944. On 6 September, Davis handed over command to Major E C Robinson

Eventually the formal link to divisions was dissolved and titles changed. On 1 October 1944, 53 Inf Tps Wksp became 806 Inf Tps Wksp.

Find out more

Find out more about REME units and their movements during the North-West Europe campaign of 1944-45 in our D-Day to VE Day Campaign. Follow along on Facebook or X. Take a look at posts we've shared. 

Read our blog on Ken Miles, racing driver and REME Armament Artificer.