11 Time Out
This chapter is almost entirely based on primary sources, mainly the battalion (WO 175/552 and WO 169_10296) and brigade (WO 175/225 and WO 169_8950) level war diaries. Additional personal material has been included from Jack Schofield’s memoir, from the Wally Binch collection in the Nottinghamshire Archive, and from the Imperial War Museum’s sound archive.
Notes
p. 190 Salvage priorities from WO 175/225 139 Bde WD May 1943, ‘139 Inf Mde Adm Instruction No. 1’, 13 May 1943.
p. 191 The training regime in North Africa is described in IWM Sound Archive #18484, Harold Harrington interview with Peter M Hart, (undated), Reel 2; Plowright, IWM Tape #15590, Reel 7; Markham, IWM Tape #13561, Reel 10; NCA, DDSF/3/24, George Warsop ‘In God’s Pocket’, pp. 45–50. The three dead were George William Askew and Thomas William Thomas in July, buried in Dely Ibrahim Cemetery, Algeria, and Herbert Clarence Ellis in August, buried in Massicault War Cemetery, Tunisia.
p. 195 Johnny Wright in On Active Service, p. 116 and IWM Sound Archive, #19079, John Wright interview with Peter M Hart (1999), Reel 3; see also IWM Sound Archive, #19987, Denys Crews interview with Nigel de Lee (199), Reel 4, on attitudes to TA officers.
p.195-96 For sanitary and medical conditions in North Africa, see Schofield manuscript p. 68, Crews, IWM tape #19987, Reel 6, and battalion and brigade War Diaries.
p. 196 Ellis court martial from WO 175/225 139 Bde WD June 1943, WO 213/51.
p. 197 Stanley Waine is buried in Massicault War Cemetery, southwest of Tunis. His death is described by Corby in On Active Service, p 49, Markham, ibid, p. 40; Mellors in More Sherwood Foreseters Memories, p. 132; and the IWM Sound Archive, #13455, William Sheppard interview with Peter M Hart (1993), Reel 7. According to Mellors, Waine was one of six Allied dead that day and there were 100 casualties overall, while eight enemy planes were shot down. That Stanley Waine and Stanley Waine Darwent were the same individual only became apparent to me when searching for Darwent’s service number.
p.198 Details from WO 175/552 5th SF WD, August 1943. The War Diary identifies the landing craft as LST 133 and LST136, LCI-140, LCI-141 and LCI-142. None of these match any actual British or US warship. These were probably temporary identification numbers allocated for the invasion. The battalion’s full complement of Bren carriers was seventeen; seven for the mortar platoon, four for the MMG platoon and six in the carrier platoon. One LST carried the battalion water truck in place of the ninth carrier. The weight of Field Serice Marching Order comes from ‘The Soldier’s Load: Historical Data’, 5 January 2004, [p.11], on <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk > accessed 6 April 2021.
p. 198-99 Verity’s exploits are described in DDSF/3/5 Denys Crews manuscripts ‘First Meeting With “Tich” Verity’ and ‘The Landing at Salerno September 9th 1943’; also by Crews in On Active Service, p. 92;