Ronnie Boyd (Major RW Boyd MC) rejoined us on the Paglia, a robust and genial character of long standing in the Rifles and senior to all of the other company commanders. He was a regular and, in fact, senior to everyone except Murphy, being commissioned two years before Bala and myself. Ronnie had recently been rescued by Bala from some unrewarding staff assignment and he too left his niche in the Irish Brigade in the short five months of life that remained to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I posted him to E in Mervyn\u2019s place on the 17th<\/sup> of June and his availability was providential as we simply had no one else left with the experience we needed. The demands made upon our company commanders need no underlining and, in the last resort, everything depended on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This day of the 17th<\/sup> was largely spent in dealing with postings between the companies and promotions and interviews, which arose from them. After that, I felt that we had done the best we could with our brittle order of battle. The key personalities were all too few now and none of the companies had more than a handful of experienced NCOs left to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the night, Jerry Cole came in with orders to bring the battalion up to Monte Giove, where the Faughs were now in position and I went ahead of them with Frankie at 0900 hours. It rained heavily for most of the day and this unexpected intervention of the weather rapidly turned the mountain tracks in to mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion came on with Murphy in troop carriers, but it was a very rough frustrating drive with continual diversions where the enemy had either cratered the track or blown part of the mountainside down on top of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In view of the weather, and what the Germans had been doing to the district, we may have had a particularly jaundiced view of the topography, but I thought it the foulest bit of Italian hill country that I had seen so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enemy had done as much damage to the approaches as they could possibly have achieved in the time available and the purpose of those rearguards needed no further explaining. The route forward certainly was as tortuous as any I had experienced and the task of 214 Field Company in making it possible at all was prodigious. Some of the diversions had been bulldozed by the sappers down to the valley bottom out of precipitous faces on both sides of the obstacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the last of our vehicles were through, the road behind us collapsed completely and brought most of the division to a standstill for a further thirty six hours. By that time, Citta della Pieve had, at last, been evacuated by the enemy and, from then on, 78 Division had an alternative route available. 36 Brigade pushed on ahead of us as soon as it was open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were in to Monte Giove in the early afternoon of the 18th<\/sup>, but the Inniskillings were unable to get forward at all at first and they only crawled in by ones and twos in the small hours. This was very bad luck as their \u2018Waterloo Day\u2019 was usually regarded as sacred and they were intending an extra special celebration in honour of it. We were all looking forward to assisting in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, by the 19th<\/sup>, the Irish Brigade was concentrated once more with those unpleasant hills mainly behind it and the lower terrain round Lake Trasimene lay spread out before us with all prospects pleasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pat came in to dine with us that evening and my diary recorded that two geese were on the table for him. Really, it is not surprising that he dined with his battalions so often. Hugh Holmes also appeared for a drink in the late evening and I was sorry to find him in the dumps. Hugh\u2019s trouble was that his only desire was to be a company or battalion commander in the heat of the conflict, whereas our superiors regarded him as indispensable as a staff officer and Pat had just told him that for about the tenth time. Apparently, he had now been asked for as a G1 and he was appalled at leaving the brigade. According to my recollection, I said something about a chap having to do what he did best in life – probably much as Pat had said to him \u2013 and our confiding brigadier usually compared notes with us on such matters. This was all the sadder as Hugh was a marvellous second in command and knew his battalion better than anyone less serving. Certainly, I was in a strong position to discuss that as we had served together for so long as company officers in the Faughs\u2019 D Company. Before the war, Hugh Holmes was a beak at Sherborne and he carried on his practice, without changing his style much, in the Irish Brigade. He was liable to pat anyone on the head, from brigadiers downwards. No could handle James Dunnill better than Hugh could and perhaps it is true to say that he was the only one, who could handle his capricious CO. Anyway, we were not losing him yet awhile and he contrived to fend off any such postings until the end of September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 19th<\/sup> continued wet and foul and the battalion moved forward again in torrential rain during the afternoon. We were timed to move at 3pm, but there was undisclosed trouble somewhere and we started a half an hour early. In the meantime, strong rumours started to reach us that all was far from well and there was exceptionally heavy gunfire ahead of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It took us four hours to cover the few miles forward to Tavernelle, which was our next concentration point. There were continual blockages – one caused by an overturned 25-pounder \u2013 and, on another occasion, by a wrecked carrier of 56 Recce, which Kendal had abandoned. I recorded that we were in by dusk by a miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During our two hours of frustrating travel, no one had suffered unduly. Marching had been negligible and we had been able to house all our troops under cover after arrival. Nonetheless, some kind of opaqueness descended over the brigade and I suspect the whole division during these few days and no one know quite what to make of it. We felt, however, that something significant was happening. At this stage, we were entirely ignorant of the wrath to come and human nature, being what it is, we had cheerfully assumed that the Irish Brigade would continue on its course, careering up the rest of Italy after a series of actions like Morrano and the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were ominous signs of a change in the next twenty four hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surging ahead on our left, 36 Brigade had come down out of the hills from Citta and met heavy opposition when they came up to Lake Chiusi. Here, in relatively low rolling country, some of it blind, there was a five mile gap between that lake and Trasimene \u2013 and, here, in its close wooded downland, villages and farm steadings. Kesselring threw down the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That evening, the Argylls had carried Strada several miles away on our left and, pushing on further, they got in to Vaiano a mile east of Lake Chiusi. Here in the darkness, they were heavily counter attacked and, by the time the night was out, the Argylls were driven from the place with heavy losses including, regrettably, a good many prisoners. Brigadier James, who commanded 36 Brigade, remained undismayed by the setback, though not then realising its significance. The following day, he unleashed the Buffs against this key position \u2013 and the Buffs, too, were savagely handled and sent back reeling \u2013 and the Buffs, in a day and a half\u2019s heavy fighting, had come to a dead stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concurrently, with these events, 11 Brigade were thrown in on the right of 36, coming up the Trasimene shore through Macchie, with a view to seizing the Fatucchio ridge and outflanking the defence system round Vaiano. Both the East Surreys and the Lancashire Fusiliers attempted to carry the ridge on the 20th<\/sup> and both ran into murderous opposition immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the evening of the 20th<\/sup>, the 78th<\/sup> Division had been brought to a halt. Its two forward brigades were at close grips with the enemy and both had suffered heavily. The Irish Brigade remained and it was now our turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perched up in the castle of Montalera in the Faughs\u2019 OP, the entire Trasimene sector spread out below us like a model landscape with the lake, itself, as the centrepiece. As a battlefield, it hardly seemed real. Even the thud of gunfire carried up to us flatly over the three miles of streaming countryside that lay between us. Still, there was a lot of it; more, much more, than any since Cassino and the cotton wool puffs of small explosions were rising continuously in those hillocks, where we knew the Lancashire Fusiliers were hanging on by their eyebrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Paul and I were studying this superb panorama, Pat came in, saying that he wished to break the news to me greatly \u2013 that the general had had an inspiration. The following day, or rather night, he proposed to sail the 2nd<\/sup> Rifles in \u2018ducks\u2019 (DUKWs) down the ten mile length of Lake Trasimene and land us behind all this vexatious opposition. There were some mutterings about Napoleon and genius, or some such, and \u2018….anyway, what do you think of the idea?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to my recollection, I stayed silent for several long minutes while Paul, I think, was also speechless. Then, searching for words, I referred to the abject speed of the duck, its noise like a traction engine giving birth, and the military problem confronting us when the reception committee gathered with 88s, car head lights etc, to await our landfall the other end. They would have several hours\u2019 notice to arrange matters as the crocodile proceeded at four knots down the loch. Finally, I said that I thought it would be the likely end of Charles Keighley\u2019s career as well as mine \u2019…and yours for allowing it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pat grinned, \u2018I thought I\u2019d try it out on you. I will pass your comments, and mine, on to himself.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n In view of what we know now, that a large chunk of Kesselring\u2019s Heeresgruppe Sudwest was now dug in astride Lake Trasimene, the \u2018duck\u2019 project is interesting chiefly for the attitude of mind, it reveals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some hours later, Pat appeared again, \u2018You can relax\u2019, he said, \u2018it is off\u2019 \u2013 but, by then, the grim news had come in undiluted from the other brigades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As we discussed what lay before us, my brigadier mentioned that we were in our traditional role again \u2013 with the army dependent on us. Or so it seemed. There was no doubt at all of our divisional commander\u2019s feelings in the matter. Describing his talk with the general, Pat went on, \u2018Charles was at his silkiest…he always is when he wants something.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Faughs\u2019 mess corporals appeared beside us, elegant in drill jackets and bearing glasses. Pat\u2019s grin turned impish and he exploded in laughter. \u2018Don\u2019t you realise,\u2019 he said, as I raised my eyebrow, \u2018It is in our gift, yours probably. Either he gets a corps out of this \u2013 or it\u2019s a bowler hat.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ronnie Boyd (Major RW Boyd MC) rejoined us on the Paglia, a robust and genial character of long standing in the Rifles and senior to all of the other company commanders. He was a regular and, in fact, senior to everyone except Murphy, being commissioned two years before Bala and myself. Ronnie had recently been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":16896,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25478","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25480,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25478\/revisions\/25480"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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