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MOTORING MISSION
Extraordinary story of Rolls Royce that rolled across beaches right after D-Day before being restored by Richard Hammond
One Army boss believes the motor has 'the most powerful story of any in the world'
JUST 72 hours after D-Day, the bloodiest clash since World War One, soldiers slogging up a Normandy shore were stunned when a Rolls-Royce overtook them.
On June 9, 1944, three days after the Allies landed in France to oust the Nazis, General Bernard Montgomery — “Monty” — had his prized motor delivered on to battle-scarred Juno beach.
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Commander of around two million land forces who would fight in Normandy that summer, Monty wanted to send a message to his troops and to German leader Adolf Hitler.
So wearing his distinctive beret, which had two badges, he was driven around in a black Rolls-Royce Wraith staff car that signalled to the world the British had arrived and were there to stay.
Our troops cheered when they saw it, while captured German soldiers did double-takes.
Next week, 80 years later, Monty’s historic Roller, with the number plate FLD 99, will return to Normandy, this time driven by Top Gear’s Richard Hammond.
READ MORE ON RICHARD HAMMOND
‘Space to plan war’
The jet-black Roller, with its gleaming chrome and plush leather interior, will be one of the stars of D-Day 80.
With the Hamster at the wheel, it returns to Juno beach next Wednesday and will have pride of place at the British Normandy Memorial on June 6, the anniversary of D-Day.
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Not only will it be special for Richard to drive Monty’s motor in France, it was also the team at his firm The Smallest Cog that restored this “priceless” car.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Richard, 54, poses next to the motor outside his workshop on an industrial estate in Hereford, where the Rolls, with its bomb-damaged body, was lovingly restored in just two months.
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He says: “This was the first non-armoured military vehicle over Juno Beach. It had been used to transport Montgomery, the Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American Allied Supreme Commander “Ike” Eisenhower, three leaders who between them planned and petitioned the King to carry out the D-Day landings.
“So three people at the centre of actions that many would say saved the modern world travelled in this unique car.”
Madame Gondree who was among the first to be liberated on D-Day recalls the moment British soldiers arrived at her home in Normandy
After the battle for Normandy ended in late August 1944, Monty was chauffeured all over Europe visiting troops in the Rolls-Royce.
Its roomy back seat had space to spread out documents to plan the next stage of the war and for his dog, notably named Hitler.
Wilberforce de Forte, who served in World War Two before becoming a motoring journalist, recalled seeing the Roller in the German Rhineland.
He wrote: “A window cranked down, revealing the great man with maps spread across the rear bench and a panting terrier dog on his lap.”
Monty beckoned a young soldier over for a private chat.
The serviceman later revealed: “He just asked me my name, where I came from and what we’d been up to. Dog’s breath pongs a bit.”
The Rolls was at Luneburg Heath, near Hamburg, on May 4, 1945, when Montgomery took the unconditional surrender of Germany’s northern armies.
Four days later, the war in Europe was officially over.
Monty carried on using the famous Wraith until 1966, when he handed it back to the military.
The car eventually ended up in the hands of the Royal Logistic Corps, who kept it in their museum at Worthy Down, near Winchester, Hants.
Brigadier Mike Caldicott says: “It was in London during the Second World War and actually got damaged by a Luftwaffe bomb in 1941.
“It was renovated fully by Rolls-Royce in 1979, when it was about 40 years old, which of course is now 45 years ago.
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“The car has been used a lot as a staff car for VIP visits.
“It’s the preferred staff car for Princess Anne, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Logistic Corps.
“Occasionally, if it’s available, we allow our own officers and troops to use it as a wedding car.
“It’s had the odd knock. The paint and the bodywork were quite tatty in places. The sunroof also leaked.”
Last August, Brigadier Caldicott took Monty’s Rolls to CarFest South at ex-F1 driver Jody Scheckter’s Hampshire farm, where Richard was displaying two cars his company had worked on.
Brigadier Caldicott told Richard how he wanted to have the motor restored to be part of the D-Day 80 commemorations in France.
‘Bomb damaged’
He adds: “That car probably has the most powerful story of any in the world. It’s irreplaceable.
“Some of the senior trustees of the Royal Logistic Corps and the museum were initially uncomfortable that we would place the car in the hands of Richard Hammond and his team, rather than have it done by Rolls-Royce.”
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Richard recalls: “I was sitting across from two brigadiers thinking, ‘I can’t afford to screw up’.
“The start of it was to repair some bits of paintwork here and there. By the end we’d repainted it entirely.
“It’s been reduced to bare metal, we’ve reshaped parts of it, critical panels that had been dented, some of them suspected to have been bomb damaged.
“It should have taken two years, but we hired extra staff and completed the job in two months.
“I did help with some of the initial sanding down of the bodywork, and I wanted to be involved at the polishing stage, but I didn’t dare risk it — I left that to the experts.”
Brigadier Caldicott says of the delicate process: “They made me quite nervous because it looked as though they were falling behind with the work. I didn’t think they were going to get the car ready in time.
“It would have been a disaster because we need the car for a series of pre-D-Day events related to Normandy.
“And, of course, next week we drive the car to France.”
Richard, who filmed the restoration for his Discovery+ TV series, Richard Hammond’s Workshop, confesses: “It did go down to the wire.
“We were polishing it as we put it on the truck to transport it back to them.”
Brigadier Caldicott revealed he breathed a sigh of relief when the Rolls-Royce returned.
He says: “If they’d messed the car up, that would be an absolute disaster. If they’d been late, that would be an absolute disaster.
“So when Richard drove the car around the corner on time and looking its absolute beautiful best I felt enormous relief and huge pride. Deeply emotional.”
On Monday, Normandy veterans and Monty’s grandson Henry Viscount Alamein will get to see his Roller at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, where D-Day was planned, before TV’s Richard drives it on to a ferry to France.
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Richard says: “We wanted to restore it to its crisp military best, its dress uniform for the forthcoming 80th commemoration events — and I think we did it.”
- Richard Hammond’s Workshop on Discovery+ will tell the story of Monty’s Rolls-Royce in the autumn.
...AND ANOTHER TWO
BERNARD Montgomery, promoted to Field Marshal in September 1944, was a big Rolls-Royce fan – and he had three at his disposal.
In England, his official car was a Phantom III, which he often sent to collect King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill for top-secret meetings ahead of D-Day.
Green and black, it even had a bespoke electric cigar lighter for Churchill to use.
But it was only on loan. Its owner, boss of carmakers Talbot, insisted it never be allowed to cross the Channel into the war zone.
The Ministry of War also had a Wraith that had belonged to actress Madeleine Carroll.
She became a global star after appearing in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps in 1935.
At her peak she was the highest-paid actress in the world.
She had the Wraith built to order at Rolls-Royce’s factory in Crewe in April 1939.
But she sold it back to the firm just nine months later.
In 1944, they flogged it to the Ministry of Military Transport, who occasionally loaned it to Monty.
But his favourite was FLD 99, with its six-cylinder engine that did 85mph and went from 0-50mph in 16.4 seconds.
It was ahead of its time, with electric rear curtains and vanity screen, as well as variable suspension controlled from the steering column.
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