The Ven David Rogers, communications officer who served with Montgomery at Lüneberg Heath – obituary

The Venerable David Rogers, who has died aged 99, served with Field Marshal Montgomery at Lüneberg Heath in 1945 and received the radio message from the frontline that a German general was requesting safe passage to surrender; years later he recalled feeling “exhilaration that at least the German part of the Second World War was over”.

Lieutenant Rogers was part of a small innovative communications network Montgomery established to ensure he personally had the speediest, most accurate information from the front. The “Phantom” regiment was established in North Africa when Monty realised that the traditional passing of tactical information up and down the army hierarchy meant that intelligence moved too slowly for rapid modern warfare.

Phantom became Monty’s personal eyes and ears. Small, lightweight teams were attached to frontline commanders. Equipped with jeeps, motorbikes and powerful radios they got information to Monty almost instantly.

As part of a Phantom information co-ordination unit, Rogers sat at the centre of the spider’s web when a dramatic message came through on May 3 1945. He later recalled:

“I was actually on duty when the message came through from one of the senior commanders near the front line that a senior German officer wanted to come through and negotiate the surrender of the German army, in front of all of Monty’s forces.

“So there was I with this piece of paper and I took it to his caravan. But he wasn’t there and nobody there could tell me where he was. And obviously this needed to be got through to him very quickly. Anyway, somebody there took this message off me and he was able eventually to get in touch with Monty and he came back pretty quickly to his headquarters ready to receive these people.

“And then, after a few hours, a delegation of very senior Germans arrived at Monty’s headquarters and we saw them all coming under guard, because they were Prisoners of War.”

As well as conveying the news of the surrender Rogers also found himself informing Montgomery of the successful capture of the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine. Later he was entrusted with delivering a package of papers personally from Montgomery into the hands of General Eisenhower at Allied Headquarters in the Palace of Versailles.

Born into a Yorkshire clergy family on March 12 1921, David Arthur Rogers was the oldest of six brothers, all of whom served in and survived the war. In his own words Rogers lived a sheltered and conventional childhood in a vicarage and at public school.

In 1939 he was 18 and planning to head to Cambridge to study and follow his father into the Church of England. With his future ordination in sight he could readily have secured an exemption from combat or military service. He refused, in his words, to “play that card”. He believed in the “just war” but also felt that after the war he would have no credibility as a clergyman ministering to parishioners if he had ducked serving his country.

After regulation initial training and square bashing, he eventually found his way into the fledgling Phantom unit. David Niven was a fellow officer who also trained at Phantom’s base in the genteel surroundings of Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. There, he learned how to ride and maintain motorbikes, to operate sophisticated long-range radios and use Morse Code.

Rogers landed in Europe in early 1945 and was immediately deployed to shadow a US Army unit. This unit had been detached from the main body of US forces by the surprise German counter-attack through the Ardennes.

His job was to extract information from his US general, and feed it back to Montgomery. But the American was chafing under temporary British command and not inclined to yield secret US Army intelligence to a whippersnapper British officer.

But Rogers played the situation cannily. As well as feeding information into the Phantom network he could listen in and gather information from his counterparts in other frontline outposts. Rogers plotted that information on to a map of the area of conflict across northern France. Soon he had a map that the US general was desperate to see. From then on the Americans were more than happy to yield their secrets and trade information. Phantom had given the British an asset the US could not then match.

On the way from the Ardennes to Lüneberg Heath Rogers was privileged to pass to Montgomery the news that the bridge over the Rhine at Remagen had been captured intact. Rogers later recalled: “I was actually with the Americans when the exciting thing happened when the railway bridge over the Rhine was capture intact. One of the most exciting things I was able to send back to Monty was that particular very important strategic bit of information.”

During and after the surrender at Lüneberg Heath Rogers, despite his youth and junior rank, developed a strong relationship with senior intelligence officers on Montgomery’s staff. Shortly after the surrender Montgomery had a package of papers and communication he wished to have delivered into the hands of General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, then headquartered in splendour in the Palace of Versailles.

Rogers set off with a driver and a jeep across 400 miles of devastated northern Europe. After two days he reached Versailles. But a problem arose. The US Military Police were not about to let an unknown British officer into Eisenhower’s presence with a package. But Rogers had orders from Monty that the package needed to be delivered into Ike’s hands.

A clever compromise was found. The sets of gilded doors were opened to reveal Eisenhower at his desk, deep within the Palace of Versailles. The MP marched the package to the desk and handed it over, in the sight of Rogers at the threshold. Mission accomplished, Field Marshal.

War over, Rogers made up for 6 years lost time, going to Cambridge, from a line of family Cantab clergy. He took a Third, with pride. Later in life he argued that those with higher classifications had taken insufficient advantage of the opportunities Cambridge provides.

Once ordained at Ridley College, he embarked on his ministry across the north of England. He ministered to poor urban congregations in Stockport and Manchester, as well as to rural parishioners in Sedbergh, Yorkshire. He rose to become Archdeacon of Craven, in the Bradford diocese.

His ministry and sense of service were profoundly influenced by his wartime experience. At the age of 21 he had needed to command a platoon of men, all significantly older and more worldly wise than he was, hailing from the mines and steelworks of Yorkshire.

The lessons he learned then lasted a lifetime: Never eat until all the men have eaten; learn everyone’s name; never ask someone to carry out a task you would not do yourself; realise that the apparently toughest of men can conceal personal anguish.

His true sense of duty to all, on an equal basis, was formed in those military bonds. He always emphasised that he had never fired a shot in anger or faced real danger. But he was, in many senses, a very Christian soldier. And a soldierly Christian.

Near the end of his life he recalled playing his part in that moment of history in 1945: “It was all very exciting being present and being literally on the site where it all was.”

David Rogers’s wife Joan and son Jeremy predeceased him; he is survived by his daughters Janet, Rosemary and Anne.

The Venerable David Rogers, born March 12 1921, died November 23 2020