4 Journeymen

p. 75 Eric Linklater, The Campaign in Italy (London: HMSO, 1977, first published 1951), p. 134. The 9th Royal Fusiliers suffered 25 officer and 547 other rank casualties, while eight other battalions suffered over 300 losses. The source of Linklater’s statistics is not given. The officers in the Foresters can be identified by name from WO 417, the number does not include Park and Semple. I have only identified 472 Other Ranks casualties by name from WO417, but whatever the exact number the impact on the battalion was considerable.

p. 76 The temporary attachment of DLI officers is also mentioned in Stringer, History of the 16th DLI, p. 30.

p. 76 Welchman’s background from Nottinghamshire Archives, DD_SF_28, Anon, ‘Personal account of life of Colonel J R Welchman including war service with Sherwood Foresters’. For Welchman’s command style see Tony Lord, IWM Tape #19987, Reel 7; and Glover, in OAS, p. 138.

p. 76 Only five rather than six company commanders are shown on the Battalion returns at this time, probably because A Company had not yet been reformed.

p. 77 Men recruited into the Sherwood Foresters were allocated a block of service numbers between 4960001 and 5038001. From July 1942 new recruits were initially put into a General Service Corps with an eight digit service number, so the unit to which they were later assigned cannot be identified. But in the battles of 1943 the vast majority of men in the battalion, judging from the casualty lists, still had a service number indicating their unit at enlistment. My percentages are calculated from data in WO 417.

The high proportion of GSC casualties at the Volturno may indicate a lower level of training of the men in the battalion at this action, or at least those who became casualties, and may be a further reason for the heavy losses suffered. Alternatively, it may reflect the large number of signal and other support personnel captured.

p. 77 Service record of Ronald Somerville from author’s personal archive. The number of Beds and Herts’ casualties calculated from WO 417, specifically Casualty Lists 1319, 1323, 1337, 1358, 1366, 1377, 1380. The 2nd Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DOCLI) from the same brigade also provided many reinforcements to the 5th Foresters.

p. 79 Carrier Platoon changes from Harold Harrington, IWM Tape #18484, Reel 4, and William Sheppard, IWM Tape #13455, Reel 6.

p. 79 Tony Lord background from IWM Tape #19987.

p. 80 Sam Smith background from IWM Tape #13562.

p. 82 Dating back to the eighteenth century, the black flash was peculiar to the Royal Welch Fusiliers uniform. When the Army dropped the requirement for officers to wear wigs tied back by black ribbon, the RWF were overseas and returned to England to discover that they no longer complied with Dress Regulations.

pp. 83-84 Sgt Harry Rider’s account is in OAS, pp. 134–35. Rider does not name the Sergeant but from the Leicester’s war diary and CWGC data it appears to have been 28-year-old George Edward Greasley from Barlestone in Warwickshire.

pp. 85-86 Frank Mardell’s recollections of the details of this day are sometimes contradictory. For example, in More Sherwood Forester Memories he wrote about being supported by tanks, but in his interview with Peter Hart for the IWM he explicitly said there were no tanks. Both the battalion WD and that of the 40th RTR (WO 169/9370) indicates tanks were present. On the tapes he says that his shrapnel injuries were from mortar fire, which is what is stated in his medical records, but his son John related to me an alternative and equally plausible story that he triggered an S-mine. Given that he was unconscious for eight days as a result of his injuries, these discrepancies are not surprising, and the account here is a possible reconciliation of the sources, rather than an absolutely accurate narrative of his experiences.

p. 86 Crane’s medal was gazetted on Tuesday 11 April 1944. The unlikely sounding award came about because a party of Russians was touring the area at the time. Led by a general, they had been sent by Stalin to assess whether the Allies were putting their backs into the campaign in Italy.

p. 87 According to Frank Mardell, IWM tape #16400, Reel 6, D Company were down to twenty-three men. The detailed timings of Ballance’s attack are imprecise. The 16th DLI war diary says Ballance received his orders at 15.15 and was within 150 yards of the Foresters’ [sic] objective at 19.00. The Foresters’ diary is more vague and reports the DLI company coming under command ‘on the evening of 2 December’, the 139 Brigade diary equally so, saying that the advance was ‘at last light’ and the same time as 56th Division’s advance. The 46th Division diary says that the Durham’s Battle Patrol [sic] went forward at 16.20 on the 2 December, but did not arrive at Foresters’ Wood until 05.15 next morning. All that can be said for certain is that the Ballance’s patrol was not successful that evening in advancing beyond the line reached by the Foresters, and was pinned down for the whole of 3 December.

pp. 88-89 This summary of the action on 6 December is taken from the war diaries of 46th Division (WO 169/8767), 139 Brigade (WO 169/8950), 16th DLI (WO 169/10206), 6th Lincolns (WO 169/10252), 2/5th Leicesters (WO 169/10253), and 6th York and Lancs (WO 169/10310). Precise timings vary slightly between accounts. The three Foresters scouts were Lance-Corporal C. Dyer and Privates C. Rear and C. Bennett.

p. 90 Casualties from 5th SF war diary, December 1943. Cross referencing to WO 417 has identified 6 officer and 137 OR casualties, with four OR unaccounted for. There are eleven ORs recorded as KIA and three DOW between 2–17 December. In addition the CWGC database lists had two officers and nine other ranks killed from the 16th DLI on 3–4 December 1943; their war diary says two officers and seven ORs killed.

pp. 91 Details on the S-mine from U.S. War Department Technical Manual, TM-E 30–451: Handbook on German Military Forces (n.l.: US War Department, 1945).

p. 92 Morral’s account of the S-mine incident implies that the incident occurred on Christmas Eve, but all other evidence says that it was Christmas Day. Privates Hudson and Risdale have been identified from WO 417.