We are pleased to be able to add the unpublished personal memoirs of Captain Percy Alexander Hamilton MC, who served with 38 (Irish) Brigade from early 1943 onwards. He was able to write down his wartime story while based in Austria during 1945 and 1946.
We would like to thank Percy Hamilton’s sons, David and Ronnie, for allowing us to add these most evocative and moving personal accounts to the Irish Brigade web site.
“I walked through the iron gates of Westland Row station Dublin some time about dawn on a morning late in February 1943. I had been on a fortnight’s embarkation leave and was on my way back to England. My mother and father were at the station to see me off, but the regulations kept all but travellers behind the railings. I could see them from the carriage, and by leaning out of the window, I could have shouted last minute messages, but I could think of nothing. We had been through everything so many times. The train pulled out, and I leaned out and waved as long as the station was in sight…”
Back Row: Fusilier Rolfe, Fusilier Keen, L/Cpl Swainson, Fusilier Francis.
Front Row: Fusilier Ruane, Sgt O’Connor, Lt Hamilton, Cpl Fielder.
“In front of the ‘Windmill Farm’ area, about half a mile ahead, there was a hill which was used as an ‘OP’. The company commanders were taken there and then each commander brought his platoon commanders up.
Looking across the plain beyond Avenue Farm, there was a range of mountains, one of which was pointed out as our next objective. It was called Djebel Mahdi; we called it ‘Mahdi’….”
“We came in sight of land early in the morning and sailed along the coast to port. The sea was flat calm and the sun was shining, and about midday, we came to an improvised port, but had to wait a little way out while some other ships unloaded. After lunch, we pulled in to the jetty, which ran out from a sandy beach far enough for the LST to come right up to it. There was room for two ships at a time, as coming in bow first, they only need their own width. The beach was covered with Summerfelt track, an improvised road made out of coconut matting and wire netting, so we were able to drive the transport right up to the road without any trouble….”
“After ten days or so at Mortar Corner, it was decided to send half the Bttn at a time to the north coast for a week. The first lot went and returned and my turn came and after we got there, it was decided to keep the whole lot up there so the first party had to come all the way up again. It was about a fifty miles over very bad roads.
When we arrived at the rest area, we found that we lived in tents in amongst shady fig trees with a vineyard on one hand and the sea on the other…”
Percy Alexander Hamilton joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Belfast on 15th October 1940, and served as a corporal with their 1st Battalion for nearly two years before entering the 164 Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU).
When he passed out of the OCTU in October 1942, he received an emergency commission and was assigned initially to the 5th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (5 Innisks), which was a reserve unit based in Northern Ireland. At the end of January 1943, he embarked for North Africa with a reinforcement draft, and was able to join up with the 6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (6 Innisks), who were occupying positions on Grandstand Hill, north of Bou Arada, on 13th March 1943.
He served with 6 Innisks and then 2 Innisks when they joined the Irish Brigade, and was present at most of the brigade’s actions in Tunisia and Italy, including those at Tanngoucha, Centuripe, Termoli, San Salvo, the Liri Valley, Lake Trasimene, and the Argenta Gap.
Percy rose to the rank of Captain, although he was acting Major when he was Officer Commanding C Company, 6 Innisks, during their assault on Pucciarelli Ridge near to Lake Trasimeno, on 21st/22nd June 1944. For his actions that night, he was awarded the Military Cross.
On leaving Austria in June 1946, Percy Hamilton returned home to Dublin.