OXFORD found itself at the centre of a major military exercise during the Second World War.

Exercise Spartan involving British and Canadian troops in March 1943 was designed to test the Allies’ readiness for the invasion of occupied Europe on D-Day the following year.

Two forces – Eastland representing the Germans and Southland representing the Allies – faced each other over great swathes of middle and southern England.

The Eastland forces were presumed to have overrun Allied territory, an area stretching from Cambridge and Coventry to Gloucester, while Southland’s task was to regain that occupied territory, starting on a line from Swindon to Maidenhead and sweeping north through towns like Oxford.

To make life harder for the Allied forces, the “German” army was allowed to advance earlier than the “enemy”.

Memory Lane this week

As part of the exercise, the Allies had to built pontoon and other temporary bridges to replace those “destroyed” by the Germans.

Little was revealed publicly at the time for security reasons, but people in Oxford must have seen evidence of the exercise. There are pictures showing Bren gun carriers passing the Ashmolean Museum in Beaumont Street and activity beside the Thames at Osney.

Oxford Mail:

 Vehicles cross a pontoon bridge built across the Thames off East Street, Osney, as part of Exercise Spartan

History shows that the exercise was not entirely successful with traffic jams, petrol shortages and a breakdown in communications hampering progress. It was said that lessons were learned, but for three Canadian generals the outcome was devastating – they were stripped of their commands.

One of them, General Andrew McNaughton, was described by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Alan Brooke, as “quite incompetent to command an army”.

He said: “He does not know how to begin the job and was tying up his forces in the most awful muddle”.

  • Does anyone remember Exercise Spartan? Write and let me know.