He became Patrol
Commander of the (Rhodesia) S1
Salisbury Patrol, with a Rhodesian
officer, Lieutenant J. R. Olivey, as
second-in-command. The patrol was known as
the "S" Patrol owing to the fact that at the
beginning of its career it used captured
Italian Spa trucks for transport until
re-equipped in March, 1941, with 30-cwt.,
four-wheel drive Fords, each truck having a
Rhodesian place-name with the initial letter
"S" painted on it. There was an air of
cheerful incongruity about "S.10 Sabi"
bogged to the axles in a soft patch of sand,
and a vague sense of comfort in seeing "S.1
Salisbury" parked in the midst of howling
wilderness where man had never come before.
Patrol S1 was engaged
in at least mission number 16 in october
1941, during which his patrol watched a
coastal road used by the Germans. On mission
18, on 15 November 1941 his patrol ambushed
the Hon - Misurata road.
Late 1941, the LRDG
planned to attack two airfields full of
German planes. This audacious attack was
conducted by patrols led by Paddy Mayne
himself and Stirling, who had founded the
LRDG. Lt Holliman's patrol was responisble
to bring Paddy Mayne's and Stirling's groups
to the airfields and taking them back after
the attack. Their trucks were painted with pink
and green camouflage. They travelled for 300
miles without incident, and although a enemy
spotter plane located the convoy twice, the
trucks reached the coast road, 3 miles from
the objective without further contact.
The unit split into two groups, Stirling
would hit Sirte, Mayne would go to Tamet
some 30 miles west. Stirling and his team
were discovered trying to reconnoitre the
airfield so had to retreat to the desert. By dusk the airfield was empty so
they could do nothing but kill time until
the rendezvous with Holliman's trucks eighty
miles away. Just as it was beginning to look
like another failure for Stirling they saw
huge flashes from explosions to the west,
described as "so musical a discord, such
sweet thunder". Before meeting the LRDG,
Stirling mined the coast road and had the
satisfaction of seeing an Italian truck blow
up and crash. At the rendezvous they were
joined by Mayne's party who reported they
had destroyed 24 aircraft and taken no
casualties. After attacking the officers
mess Mayne and five others planted the
explosives, having run out of bombs Mayne
climbed aboard the last aircraft and tore
out the instrument panel, one of his team
recalled what happened next.
"We had not gone fifty yards when the first
plane went up, we stopped to take a look but
the second one went up near us so we started
to run. What a sight, planes exploding all
over, and the terrific roar of petrol and
bombs going up".
On 24 February 1942 Lt
(temporary Captain) Holliman was awarded the
Military Cross.
On 19
August 1943 he recieves a bar to the MC. He
is then a Captain (temporary Major)
Holliman's recommendation for the Bar to his Military Cross, as recommended by Lt. Col. Carver. Picture courtesy of National Arcives through Drew5233 of ww2talk.com
Charles leaves the Long
Range Desert Group in august 1942 and is
sent back to England where he is given
command of the 5 Royal Tank Regiment. When
his unit reaches Gent, Belgium, the Germans
are ready to surrender. However, the German
commander of the city, General Daser,
approached Lt-Colonel Holliman. Although the
Germans were prepared to surrender the whole
garrison (estimated to be about 1,000 men
with 88mm guns), the German General would
only surrender to a British officer of
equivalent rank. Initially, Lt. Col. Holliman
tried to pass himself off as a General, but
one of his mean accidentally called him 'Colonel',
so Brigadier Mackeson came forward and to
persuade the Germans that he was almost a
General. The German General, then announced
that his Corps Commander had ordered him to
fight on, but fortunately his forces has
already started to withdraw to the northern
outskirts of the city, thus sparing its
historic centre from probable destruction,
from the likely street fighting that would
have ensued.
In January 1945, 5 RTR took part of the clearing of the Roer Triangle, known as Operation Blackcock. On the 21st, 5 RTR was to take over the positions of 1 RTR. The war diary of 5 RTR states that Lt. Col. Holliman was out in a Dingo scout car to recce 1 RTR tank positions before taking them over. His scout car was believed to have been destroyed by a Panther wtih which 1 RTR had duelled the previous day.
However men of 5 RTR later stated that there was no enemy shelling or tank activity. The Royal Artillery heavy guns were shooting artillery over the town of Schillburg. Lt. Col. Holliman was, together with his driver Cpl Grey and Stuart Jones, on his way to a conference with Col. Hobart of 1 RTR, and was apparently caught in the fire of these guns. It is thought that a shell burst of one of Royal Artillery shells killed Lt. Col. Holliman on the 21st of January near the town of St. Joost.
On 1 march 1945 he is
awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions that led to the liberation of Ghent.
Holliman's recommendation for the Distinguished Service Cross, as recommended by Lt. Col. Carver. Picture courtesy of National Arcives through Drew5233 of ww2talk.com
Lt. Col. Charles Holliman is buried at
Nederweert War Cemetery, grave III. A. 6.
