Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories:

Captain Montague Flower and ‘T’ Force

By Joseph Vale

Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories are our series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit into the exhibition alone!

Joseph Vale is a volunteer at the museum, contributing to many of the panels in From Conflict to Peace: Celebrating VE & VJ Day.

Montague Flower originally enlisted in the London Rifle

Brigade in 1939 and the following year, on 22nd June, 1940, was commissioned into the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

In the spring of 1945, as the Second World War was ending and the Cold War was tentatively beginning, Flower and the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion were assigned to the newly formed T-Force (Target-Force).

Due to their commitments in Belgium, the 1st Battalion was split, with all but two companies attached to the 1st Canadian Army, while Companies B and D were detached under Major Le Neve Foster to the 5th Kings, forming the T-Force of the 21st Army.

James Bond author Ian Fleming initially devised the idea of units composed of soldiers and specialist scientists tasked with ensuring the preservation and extraction of German technological equipment and research for British and American examination. Fleming would also be responsible for setting operational objectives and intelligence targets.

The first target for the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion was the Krupp military-industrial complex at Meppen. Upon arrival, the specialist scientific assessors that the Battalion were accompanying found peculiar experimental shells, but all post-1939 documents had been destroyed.

Arnhem was the next target, but it proved less fruitful than Meppen, where additional targets had been uncovered. Emden and Wilhelmshaven were next on the list but were not reached until after the ‘ceasefire’ of the 5th of May. Emden proved a valuable source of information on rocket propulsion.

On the 7th of May, pursuing 117 targets, Flower entered West Holland, and as his column approached Utrecht, they could not drive more than 5 miles an hour as local children had climbed all over the vehicles. VE Day was celebrated with a bottle of champagne. By June, having completed their assessments in Holland, the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion had returned to Germany and became the I Corps District T-Force.

1st Bucks Battalion during the liberation of Delft, Holland, 8 May 1945. Note the T Force insignia on their vehicles.