It would not be long before the battalion would be on its way to one of the war fronts. Whither, was not known, but there were many guesses, ranging from North Africa to the Far East. The battalion received a number of new officers to bring it up to strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several former officers, who had been with the Young Soldiers or attached elsewhere, returned, and in August 1942 the roll of officers was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lieut-Colonel IH Good, Commanding Officer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Major the Viscount Stopford, Second-in-Command.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain MD Ryan, Adjutant.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr J Cairns, RSM.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Headquarters Company:<\/strong> A Company:<\/strong> B Company: C Company:<\/strong> D Company:<\/strong> Reinforcement Company:<\/strong> The 1st Battalion was the first to proceed overseas. They embarked at Liverpool on August 27, 1942, in HMT Orduna, formerly a cargo and passenger liner of ten thousand tons belonging to the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. In normal times she sailed between Liverpool and Valparaiso with a general cargo and a number of cabin passengers. She had been converted into a troopship by covering part of the holds on each deck and making them into mess-decks and sleeping-quarters combined. Men slept above where they ate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some complaints have been made since the war regarding the accommodation and food on board troopships, but the post-war conditions bear no comparison with those endured by the other ranks in HMT Orduna. It says much for their loyalty, their discipline, and their high regard for duty that they bore great discomfort, poor food, little water, and practically no extra amenities with good sense and humour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Portholes had to be closed at night to prevent lights being seen. In daytime, too, they had to be closed in a heavy sea, or even in a swell on an otherwise calm day, because the sea would have rushed in. The crew were ordered to keep watch on the mess-decks, particularly when the liner reached warm climes, to ensure that there was no unauthorised opening of portholes. There were no fans down below, no ice or ice-cool water, and when the tropics were reached the other ranks sat at their mess-tables stripped to the waist and in PT shorts, wearing towels or handkerchiefs to soak up the perspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These discomforts did not prevent all ranks making the most of a long voyage, for to most of them it was a new experience. A daily training programme was carried out in order to prevent boredom and to keep everyone fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The convoy\u2019s first call was at Freetown, for fuel and other needs. The ship lay well out, and no shore leave was granted. The voyage proceeded without incident down the west coast of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa was reached after a month at sea. As Cape Town was approached at dawn all on board who rose from their hammocks or cabins saw the most wonderful spectacle of the sun rising behind the massive grandeur of Table Mountain. From the grey light of early morning, the sky was transformed by myriad shafts of gorgeous colour scintillating in ever-changing hues as the sun rose in all its glory. It was hidden by the vastness of the mountain, but a fiery glow was reflected in the heavens, spreading slowly westwards and absorbing the greyness of the departing night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The South Africans took the men of the caubeen and the green hackle to their hearts. They gave the troops a great reception, and their generous hospitality was almost overwhelming. It will long he remembered by those officers and men of the battalion who were invited to visit and even to stay at homes, both humble and proud, in various parts of the fine city. One of the first to greet the London Irish at Cape Town was Captain Dunlop, of the South African Irish, who had already been in action with his regiment in the Western Desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stay of the London Irish in Cape Town was all too brief, but many lasting friendships were made and they still endure, thus helping to strengthen the ties that exist between two nations of the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the next part of the journey the battalion transferred to HMT California, a troopship of the Anchor Line. A battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles sailed in her to Palestine four years earlier. She was a fine vessel; her mess-decks were much better arranged, and the food and amenities were an improvement on those during the first part of the voyage. A number of officers and men were left in the Orduna to proceed to an Egyptian port to collect the battalion\u2019s transport, which was sent to the Middle East by another route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HMT California reached Bombay after another uneventful voyage in convoy on October 17. Several days were spent out in the spacious harbour before the troopship was allowed to clock. On October 25 the London Irish moved to another ship, the Dutch motor-ship Melchior Treub, named after a distinguished Dutch statesman and botanist. The Melchior Treub had escaped from Batavia at the time of the Japanese invasion, and she still had her Dutch captain and Batavian crew. It was a small vessel, and the battalion were more cramped than ever, but they were on the last lap of the <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion passed through the Persian Gulf to Basra and thence up-stream to Marquill, where they disembarked. Then followed a most uncomfortable journey in trucks through a desert sandstorm to a large transit camp alongside the Baghdad railway at Az Zubair, a small Arab village whose minarets were the only break on the dreary skyline. It was the battalion\u2019s first experience of a sandstorm, and they were not prepared for it. Sand penetrated everywhere and everything, and all ranks were glad of an opportunity for a wash when camp was reached. But water in that remote desert area was scarce, and the utmost economy had to be enforced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A fortnight was spent at Az Zubair, during which there were desert marches to harden the battalion once again. On November 15 the battalion entrained for the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The journey was made in covered goods wagons with an opening on either side, at which guards had to be on the alert against prowlers, particularly when halts were made at lonely stations. Changing stations at Baghdad the next day involved a brisk march through the Iraqi capital, the legendary and romantic charm of which was lost amid the filth of its beggars and the squalor and nasty odours of its narrow streets. At midnight the journey northwards was continued, through land famed in Biblical history. All that could be seen were the countless stars in a wonderfully clear sky, with the occasional outline of a camel train or a palm-tree in the foreground of the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Journey\u2019s end was at Kirkuk, about six hundred miles north of Baghdad, in the heart of the oil country. Camp was pitched about fifteen miles away on the virgin plain that stretched on either side of the narrow main road to Mosul. To the north-east were the long range of hills full of oil borings. In the background were the towering snow-clad peaks of the mountains of Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The camp had literally to be dug out of the desert. Under a covering of about ten inches of soft sand the ground had been hardened by the summer heat, which was just declining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A tropical thunderstorm accompanied by a fierce wind broke with sudden violence as the tents were being pitched, and everything and everybody was soaked. When the storm had subsided the camp was erected, and no one was sorry when night came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many weeks, training was interrupted by heavy and continuous rain and everyone had to dig in to a depth of six to eight feet, with a well-constructed drainage system round each tent. Nevertheless, many tents were often flooded seriously, and on one occasion the Chaplain, Father Flynn, found all his possessions floating in four feet of water after a severe downpour. Roads and drains had to be laid through the camp, but despite these precautions the rain was so heavy at one period that a raging torrent, several yards wide, separated the cookhouses and mess-tents from the company lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually the rainy season ended, and the battalion settled down to strenuous battalion, brigade, and divisional exercises, prominent among which were forced night and day marches through mountains, instruction in handling mules, assault craft, and the rest. During one scheme a night crossing of the Little Zab River had to be made, and while engaged on a preliminary reconnaissance two young riflemen were lost when their canvas assault boat capsized in the swiftly flowing river. They were swept away by the current and despite gallant rescue attempts by Captain Sir James Henry and Lance Corporal J Short, of D Company, who dived into the river, the young men, Rifleman Tracey<\/a> and Rifleman Andrews<\/a>, were drowned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gallantry of Captain Sir James Henry and Lance-Corporal Short was brought to the attention of the Army Commander, who directed that it should be recorded in their Army documents in accordance with King\u2019s Regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only operational duties performed by the battalion during its stay in Iraq were to guard the oil installations against saboteurs and parachutists, also the many large dumps of ammunition placed in the hills in case the Germans broke through the Russian defences in the Caucasus. That, of course, was the main reason why the 56th (London) Division and other British troops had been sent to Iraq\u2014to help stem the German threat to the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the North African campaign was in its closing stages, the success of the Russian offensive in the Caucasus had removed the threat of German penetration to the Middle East. Early in 1943 British forces in Iraq were reduced, and among the first to move was the 56th (London) Division. Two brigades were sent in an emergency to Tunisia to assist in the final moves there, but the transfer of 168 Brigade was delayed owing to heavy rains in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n News came that the brigade was to take part in forthcoming combined operations, and this proved a great relief to the boredom which desert life eventually brings. A stay of nearly six months near the malodorous oil wells was enough for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish left Kirkuk on April 1, and after a night in a transit camp at Baghdad they started a nine-day trek in lorries across the Trans-Jordan desert to Palestine. The long convoy passed through the Judean hills, across the Jordan, and thence through central Palestine past Beersheba, with its London Irish dead of the 1914-18 War, to the Suez Canal. Training in combined operations technique was carried out at Kabrit, a small Royal Naval station on the shores of the Little Bitter Lake. The work was hard but morale was high, especially when news came that the 2nd Battalion had acquitted itself very well in its initial battles in Tunisia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was further land training at Gaza, during which four days\u2019 leave was given to the battalion and visits were paid to Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and the Services Holiday Camp at Nathanya on the Mediterranean coast north of Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June, 168 Brigade became attached to the 50th Division, and in a brief talk the Divisional Commander, Major-General SC Kirkman, a former CRA of 56th (London) Division, told the battalion that the brigade had been assigned a reserve role in the forthcoming landing operations. About this period the battalion lost several of its old stalwarts, among them being Captain \u201cPaddy\u201d Toal, the energetic Quartermaster since pre-war Territorial days, Captain \u201cBunny\u201d O\u2019Brien, Father Flynn, and Captain Phillip Isitt, each of whom took up another appointment. The quartermaster\u2019s post was filled by Lieutenant EB Gardner, of the Green Howards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE ARMY COMMANDER TO BE READ OUT TO ALL TROOPS.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n July 1943.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe time has now come to carry the war into Italy, and into the Continent of Europe. The Italian Overseas Empire has been exterminated; we will now deal with the home country.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To the Eighth Army has been given the great honour of representing the British Empire in the Allied Force which is now to carry out this task. On our left will be our American Allies. Together we will set about the Italians in their own country in no uncertain way; they came into this war to suit themselves and they must now take the consequences; they asked for it, and they will now get it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On behalf of us all I want to give a very hearty welcome to the Canadian troops that are now joining the Eighth Army. I know well the fighting men of Canada; they are magnificent soldiers, and the long and careful training they have received in England will now be put to very good use \u2013 to the great benefit of the Eighth Army.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The task in front of us is not easy. But it is not so difficult as many we have had in the past and have overcome successfully. In all our operations we have always had the close and intimate support of the Royal Navy and the RAF, and because of that support we have always succeeded. In this operation the combined effort of the three fighting services is being applied in tremendous strength, and nothing will be able to stand against it. The three of us together \u2013 Navy, Army, and Air Force \u2013 will see the thing through. I want all of you, my soldiers, to know that I have complete confidence in the successful outcome of this operation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, with faith in God and with enthusiasm for our cause and for the day of battle, let us all enter this contest with stout hearts and determination to conquer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The eyes of our families, and in fact of the whole Empire, will be on us once the battle starts; we will see that they get good news and plenty of it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To each one of you, whatever may be your rank or employment, I would say:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n GOOD LUCK AND GOOD HUNTING IN THE HOME COUNTRY OF ITALY!<\/em><\/strong> The invasion of Sicily was a well-planned and boldly executed operation in which the sea, air, and land forces each played a vital and successful part. It was an operation which the Italians, at any rate, did not think could possibly succeed. The first landings by sea and air were made where they were least expected, and so surprised were the enemy that on the first day the landings were practically unopposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sicily, an island about one hundred and sixty miles wide and about ninety miles from north to south, is about half the size of Ireland. It is high, mountainous country intersected by deep gorges with rivers running swiftly between precipitous cliffs. Along parts of the coast are narrow plainlands, but except the Catania Plain on the eastern side there is no really flat country in the island. Mount Etna, eleven thousand feet, is the highest of a rugged group of mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sicilians, a hardy mountain race, appeared intensely to dislike the Italians, and Mussolini in particular. Throughout the island small villages of ancient stone houses, perched amid the mountain peaks, formed a series of fortresses. They were designed to be impregnable in the Middle Ages with the primitive weapons of those days. In fact, as the Sicilian campaign progressed, they proved to be difficult obstacles when defended with modern weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The British Eighth Army, fresh from their triumph in North Africa, landed on the beaches of the east coast of Sicily, south of Syracuse, the ancient city founded by the Corinthians several centuries before Christ. The port, scene of stirring battles between the Athenians and the Syracusans, was captured and was quickly made ready to receive the reinforcements which followed up behind the assault troops. The historic old city had escaped devastation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next objective was the Catania Plain and its spacious airfields, thence east and west of Mount Etna, to converge again in the neighbourhood of Taormina. The American Seventh Army landed on the south coast near Gela and proceeded towards Palermo and Marsala on the west side of the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Montgomery\u2019s plans went with a swing. The Eighth Army pushed northwards up the coast until stiff resistance was met outside Catania. The Americans made impressive progress against less stubborn opposition. Palermo and Marsala fell, and the western half of Sicily was almost cleared up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were about three German divisions in the island, and they were reinforced by several paratroop brigades fighting as infantry. They were all picked troops and they put up a desperate, stubborn, but hopeless fight with skill and determination. There were four hundred thousand Italians there, too, but they did not seem to function much as soldiers. They surrendered in thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forsaken by the Italians, the Germans found that their best friend was the country, which could not have been more suitable for a defensive battle. The first impetus of the invasion over, the enemy recovered from his surprise and regrouped his forces to meet the main Allied thrusts. The Allied troops had been fighting in difficult country in an oppressive and tiring heat, and it was necessary that the original invaders should be rested and that new men should go forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A new co-ordinated plan was prepared to overcome the reorganised resistance of the Germans. There was, of course, no breaking of contact and no relaxation in the pressure by the British and American forces on land and in the air. Fighting continued in each sector, but advances were made with a view to preparing for the final push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 50th Division had been on the first assault, and 168 Brigade, with the 1st Battalion London Irish, began to reach the island three days after the initial invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 78th Division, in which was the 2nd Battalion London Irish, landed on July 26-27. The 78th Division had now left the First Army and was making its first appearance with the Eighth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was the first time that the two battalions of the Regiment had been in the same theatre of war since leaving England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plans for the final push were roughly that the Eighth Army should proceed along the eastern side of the island, capture Catania and Regalbuto, and encircle Mount Etna by the inland road through Aderno, Bronte, and Randazzo. The American Seventh Army should cover westwards of Regalbuto to the north coast and advance on Messina by the two northern routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 78th Division was on the left flank of the Eighth Army and became a connecting-link with the Americans. The 50th Division was on the right flank, fighting its way up along the east coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1st Battalion of the London Irish Rifles had sailed from Suez in the SS Karoa at the end of June and left there for Port Said on July 1. Two days later it joined a convoy of twelve ships sailing to Alexandria, which was reached on July 4. The battalion went into camp for a few days in order to prevent congestion in the city in the event of an air attack. Re-embarking on July 8 the battalion left in convoy for Syracuse the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lieut-Colonel Good explained to all ranks that as the battalion was part of the reserve brigade, its role was still uncertain, because the invasion of Sicily had already started. It was a little comforting to know that our role was not to be that of assault troops on the Sicilian beaches! Four days were spent at sea and the voyage was uneventful. Everyone expected at least an attempted raid by aircraft or submarine, but there was not the slightest hint of one, so complete was the Allied command of sea and air. The SS Karoa was the first British merchant vessel to enter Syracuse harbour, and she did so with the willing assistance of an old Sicilian pilot who had been put aboard by a Royal Naval launch. He was a picturesque character in shirtsleeves and an old straw hat, and he amused everyone by shaking hands with all he met. He, at any rate, was glad to see us in his beloved Sicily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion docked without mishap on July 13 and marched to an assembly area five miles from the port and past ruins of the fortifications which had for many months held back the Romans in their siege of Syracuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day was very hot, and everyone was heavily laden with rations and extra ammunition. Mortars, additional wireless sets, and the usual signal equipment were also carried. For the first time could be heard the distant sound of guns. The night was spent in almond and lemon groves. Holes were dug more for comfort than protection, and the men were kept awake most of the night by the flak that screamed in the air above Syracuse as raid after raid was made on the port and the ships still left in the harbour. The battalion was soon joined by the transport, whose drivers had had by no means such an uneventful voyage as the rest. They got more than a thrill when a ship two hundred yards away was bombed and sunk off Avola. It was particularly unpleasant because she carried a cargo of petrol. During this incident the London Irish sustained their first battle casualty, Rifleman Smith, a transport driver, being wounded while firing a Bren at the enemy dive-bombers from the bridge of the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At eight o\u2019clock the next morning the battalion set off on foot for Mellili. The march, a long one, was very strenuous because of the great heat. The second night also was spent in the coolness of the groves, and it was here that the battalion took its first battlefield prisoners. Captain C Byrne, the Medical Officer, and a rifleman bodyguard went to look for wells. They came to a cave full of Italians and, looking in, Captain Byrne saw three men in uniform, two soldiers and a sailor. They came out without any fuss and surrendered. Captain Byrne brought them back in triumph without a shot having been fired and without the Medical Officer breaking the Geneva Convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a further move next day to Carlentini, and the battalion sheltered in an orange-grove with plentiful supplies of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion\u2019s first task was a long-distance patrol or \u201cmopping-up\u201d sweep on the Carlentini-Agnone road, during which A Company captured fourteen men of whom three were German parachutists. There were no casualties, and the battalion was able to proceed in three-tonners to an area overlooking the Catania Plain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An attack on a brigade scale through the bridgehead which had already been forced over the Gornalunga River near the Primosole Bridge had been planned. Its direction was northwards towards Catania to the line of a ditch known as the Fosso Botacetto. That afternoon some of the battalion, including the Mortar Platoon under the command of Captain D Gibson had their first taste of shellfire when just south of the bridge. A hasty dive for cover was followed by a quick dash over the bridge, and the mortar carriers gathered in a sunken road on the north side. It was aptly named Dead Man\u2019s Gulch on account of the large number of dead German paratroopers, and some of our own fellows, too, who lay along it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brigade attack was by night on July 17, with the London Irish on the left of the thrust, the London Scottish on the right, and with the 10th Royal Berkshire Regiment in reserve. Support was to be given by the whole of the divisional artillery plus a field regiment, a medium regiment, and two regiments of self-propelled Priest guns. In addition, the Cheshire machine-gunners were to fire in support, and the light \u201cack-ack\u201d to fire directional tracer on the flanks of the attack. The objective given was the Fosso Botacetto, and thereafter it was expected that either the reserve battalion or one from another brigade would pass through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion\u2019s plan of attack put A Company on the right, C Company in the centre, D Company on the left, and B Company in reserve; a mortar detachment in a carrier in support of each forward company and three carriers in reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The assembly area was close vineyard, giving only low cover from view. It had seen considerable fighting earlier and was strewn with dead and quantities of equipment and smashed vehicles. The movement of any wheeled vehicle was extremely difficult, and all trucks were virtually confined to one narrow track in and out. Prior to the attack difficulty was experienced in getting ammunition and tools to the companies, but this task eventually was accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About thirty minutes before zero-hour information came that as it was believed that the enemy had gone \u2013 this was based on the report of an armoured reconnaissance by the Royal Tank Regiment and carriers of the London Scottish and the Royal Berkshires\u2014the attack would now be silent, and that the preliminary artillery programme would be laid on only if called for. In any case the full barrage would come down on the German positions fifteen minutes before the infantry were timed to arrive on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was hardly time to get this information to the companies who were out at the start-line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 2200 hours, zero hour, it became apparent that the new orders for a silent attack had not reached all concerned, for the light \u201cack-ack\u201d and the machine-gunners began to fire on their tasks. The enemy did not reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish had moved up in daylight through vineyards and remained under cover. The start-line was one thousand five hundred yards beyond, and to reach that they clambered through German wire a foot high. When the order came to advance, they moved forward steadily with bayonets fixed. The ground was flat, hard, and apart from a few shallow ditches was devoid of cover. The first bound was a long narrow wall or bank of earth and stones protected by barbed wire. The leading companies had covered about two thousand yards and were four hundred yards from this wall when the supporting barrage opened. When it lifted, they went in to the attack. The wire was cut and they reached the bank and clambered over. The enemy had not manned it, hut as the London Irish passed over, they saw another bank, much higher, thirty yards ahead. As they approached it the Germans opened fire. The Irish got to the hank, hurled themselves up and over it, and slithered down the other side. Here they found themselves in a wide gully with yet a higher bank in front. That was their main objective, the Fosso Bottaceto. As they made towards it the enemy opened up with machine-guns, mortars, and automatics. They were so close that oil flares were thrown by the enemy and landed among the leading troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along the gully from left and right German machine-guns fired deadly bursts about knee-high. Mortar bombs burst and shells came from two light-calibre guns hidden away on the flanks. Suddenly a great mass of flame went up. An oil-storage tank just behind the German lines was hit and the whole area was illuminated as by day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irishmen were caught in the glare, and some were killed at short range. The crossfire spattered against the sides of the carriers and the mortars were lifted out and mounted behind them, the only cover available. During a vital half-hour two carriers received direct hits, one of which wounded all three-mortar crew. The others mounted their mortar in a ditch and fired on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the fierce and perhaps unexpected German resistance, the men of A Company on the right, led by Major Cantopher and Captain MD Ryan, clambered up and down the banks and reached the main ditch, the Fosso Bottaceto. In the centre, C Company reached their objective, and inspired by the example of their Commander, Major Brooks, engaged the enemy hand-to-hand among the pill-boxes and earthworks. D Company on the left, under Captain Sir James Henry and Captain John Strick, pushed on doggedly but were pinned down by the fierce reaction of a wide-awake enemy. Each company had lost valued officers. Lieutenant Power<\/a> was killed leading his platoon, Lieutenant Orr<\/a> and Lieutenant Coghlin<\/a> fell as, with great gallantry, they had pressed forward under a hail of fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the officers and the CSM of A Company became casualties and Sergeant John Madigan, despite a wound in the arm, tackled a pillbox with one of his corporals. Indifferent to personal danger, he found his Company Commander lying wounded and he took over from him. Under his direction the company were organised once again and the fight went on. As Lieutenant AE Crampton took his men forward a bullet passed through the rim of his steel helmet and grazed his scalp. The officer was momentarily stunned, but he recovered and went on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With their forward troops holding precariously to their gains, the situation was rapidly assessed at battalion headquarters. The intense enemy fire from the right was due to the fact that the London Scottish had been unexpectedly and heavily opposed from the wood on their front which earlier had been reported empty. This prevented adequate support being given to the London Irish from that direction and their right flank became exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the confusion of the battle a party of London Scots managed to get through and joined Major Cantopher and his men. By midnight the leading platoons were back on the bank one hundred yards from the Fosso Bottaceto. This gave some cover from the crossfire, and all ranks were calm and steady. Stretcher-bearers moved fearlessly over the ground, tending and evacuating the wounded. One of them, Piper Thomas Brightman, who had been hit in the leg himself, moved about calmly and efficiently and tended fifteen wounded men who were carried to the aid-post in the rear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Support from the gunners and the mortars enabled the London Irish to hold tight and maintain their positions, precarious though they were with both flanks open and a well-armed and well-placed enemy in front. For two hours attempts were made to find out from brigade what was the exact position of the London Scottish. That proved impossible by wireless, and as no information was forthcoming, Lieutenant S Sharp, the Intelligence Officer, made the long journey back to find out. The situation was still confused, and it was obvious that the Scots had been unable to reach their target, but just how they were placed was very obscure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A plan for a battalion from the reserve brigade, the Green Howards, to move through the rear of the London Irish and to endeavour to widen the bridgehead was put into operation at 0100 hours. After some further confused fighting in the dark, it became evident that this attack, too, had not succeeded, and the Green Howards withdrew to their original position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish were thus in a predicament. The forward companies had a hold on the German defences, but any move to advance over the bank was met by heavy fire from the enemy\u2019s second and principal defence line. It was realised that no further progress could be made without considerable additional support and the silencing, in particular, of the German flanking fire. If the London Irish maintained their position, they would find themselves at daylight on a clearly defined bank, very close to the enemy, with both flanks exposed, and with practically no cover from the German machine-guns, mortars, and grenades. The forward companies had suffered rather heavy casualties and ammunition was running short. More could not be sent up before daylight because the trucks could not get across the irrigation ditches, and five carriers had already been knocked out or stranded in the attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation was discussed with the Brigade Commander, and it was decided that the London Irish should withdraw by daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was unpleasant, but it was the only sensible thing to do. B Company, under Captain HCS Lofting, moved into position to cover the forward companies and with support by the mortars the withdrawal was carried out in good order and with no further loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish soon reorganised on new lines a little to the rear, and then daylight came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a soldier\u2019s impression of that night:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe darkness of the night had fallen over us with all the suddenness of the eastern hemisphere. The stars glittered and shone like jewels in a dark-blue sky, the soft breeze drifted off the calm Mediterranean and stole sighing gently through the trees. \u2026 In the orchard there was the scent of luscious fruit, and our world seemed enclosed by a myriad of whispering thoughts. Only a few hours before had we landed on the island, and in the dark depths of the orchard we slept fitfully or talked quietly of things which come into the minds only of soldiers waiting for their first battle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We had marched for miles into a new, strange country along dusty roads beneath a blazing tropical sun. Each man carried the full scale of arms for battle, and a lot more besides. Carrying a weight of ninety-six pounds was no light task. . . . And as we marched we laughed and we swore. We would have sung but our lips and throats were parched, one could hardly raise a whistle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our exertions over for a while, we rested. Occasionally whispered mutterings came through the darkness to the spot where I laid, queer fragments of conversation which, pieced together, showed that men\u2019s thoughts were far from the field of battle, they were away in better days and peaceful times, in the homes they had left far behind in England.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly the order came to prepare for the work ahead. There was no shouting, just a quiet terse word or two passed from man to man: \u2018Get ready.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The orchard seemed to echo to a soft activity, yet in fact the stillness of the night was undisturbed. We were the forward company, and silently we set off into the darkness, the darkness of a night which might hold for us all the horrors and hatreds of which mankind was capable.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our tongues were still but our minds were strangely active as we filed nearer, ever nearer, to \u2018no man\u2019s land.\u2019 We were on the alert\u2014we had to be because this was war. Christ! when would it end? . . . The going was rough as we passed along vineyards that seemed endless. Each one we thought might reveal an enemy position and we tried so hard not to make a noise. The surprise, we thought, would be Jerry\u2019s. A muttered command and we halted. Instinctively each man dropped to the ground in his tracks. There was a little movement, some coming and going as runners passed on vital orders.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The attack was to start at once. Hardly had we absorbed this news than the silent, almost beautiful, night was made hideous by the crash of guns. Flares and Very lights and tracers made the night as day. Ahead of us I could see a long double row of barbed wire glittering maliciously in the light.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The guns suddenly stopped, and then \u2018Forward!\u2019 We went in. I clutched my rifle like a drowning man holds on to a straw. Sweat rolled off my body, and my palms were sticky on the rifle. We ran ahead, dodging and ducking, slipping and cursing, over hazards which we could see only as we reached them. The enemy now was wide-awake. With his Spandaus he swept the ground over which we passed. His mortars whizzed and banged. Sand and dust and earth crashed heavily around us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The man ahead of me coughed, slipped to his knees, sighed, and rolled over slowly. . . . I raced past him, hoping that the stretchers would not be far behind. He was my friend. . . . A carrier swept by, its guns spitting out death as it had come to us. Somehow, I reached the wire and fell flat. I hacked away like hell and a gap was made. We crawled through and as we did so a murderous pillbox in front went up with a roar and a great flame. Well done the Mortars, I thought. Bayonets moved forward in a relentless line.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A burst of fire and the men again fell flat, some never to get up again. Out on the left the section there was catching it hot because they were exposed to deadly fire, not from their front, where they had expected it, but from an unexpected quarter, their flank. There was no time to swing the direction of their attack, and they just held on in ever-dwindling numbers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pressing myself to the earth I choked and spluttered in the smoke from the flares and fires around me. We had reached our first objective, and the thought came to me: would we press on or stay where we were until daylight? The shelling died down and with it the flares, but to the left there was still the venomous spatter of the Spandaus. Darkness returned and the firing slackened. It seemed ages, but in a short time an order was passed forward. We must fall back in good order to prepared positions. Cursing to myself, I dodged back through the wire and slipped hastily into an improvised trench. We heard then what the trouble was. We had got a bit ahead of the rest of the brigade and the line had to be straightened out. That was all. In the pale shafts of dawn we checked up on who had come through that first great ordeal\u2026 and who had not.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The fight for the Fosso Botacetto was the 1st Battalion\u2019s first battle, and from it emerged several important points which were duly studied. It became evident that the original planning on a high level should have taken account of the approaches to the assembly areas which were under direct observation from known enemy positions at a range of about four thousand yards. Daylight continued about an hour before zero hour, and the enemy must have been on the alert for some development on that part of the front. The report of the armoured reconnaissance during the afternoon that the enemy had gone was taken as a sufficient reason for the change to a \u201csilent\u201d attack. That report presumably was based on the fact that the tanks and other vehicles were not fired on during their reconnaissance. If the enemy had really gone, the reconnaissance could well have been continued right up to the Fosso Botacetto to confirm whether it was really so, or that they had merely held their fire until the armoured vehicles came into range of anti-tank weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another point which came to mind after the action was whether or not the armoured reconnaissance should have been confirmed by ground reconnaissance. There was also some delay or other fault in implementing the decision to change the plan to a \u201csilent\u201d attack. The result of that, of course, was that the opening of fire by the light anti-aircraft and the machine-gunners did no more than place the enemy on the alert. The carriage of No. 35 sets in platoons during the attack led to their loss, as men found that they made getting through the wire and obstacles difficult. Better use could have been made of them if they had been kept at company headquarters and sent out to platoons after the objective had been captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion\u2019s standard night-attack drill worked well, but it was found that carriers could not compete with heavy loads if they had to negotiate ditches in the dark, unless they were ditches with long, sloping banks. It was thought, too, that the carrying of mess-tins and rations in a small side haversack, rather than on the back, would make wire and obstacle negotiation less difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SPECIAL ORDER OF THE DAY. We have taken part in our first battle of this war as a fighting team after a long period of waiting and training. It was a hard battle, entered into after hard marching, and was that hard and most exacting operation of war\u2014a night attack. It was followed by several days in the line under exhausting conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I should like you to know that in my opinion, and that opinion is shared by others, the battalion has proved itself a successful fighting team. In that team I include our affiliated battery of the 90th Field Regiment Royal Artillery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We come out of the line with the knowledge that we have the guts and the necessary, though not yet complete, technical skill, to face future operations with confidence that we shall achieve success and maintain the high fighting traditions of the Regiment. The battalion reached its objective after hard fighting, and the fact that we were unable to stay there at daylight was due to circumstances beyond our control.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It will interest you to know that enemy maps captured subsequently disclose that the position was the main Hermann Goering Defensive Position for the defence of the Catania Airfields. It was manned by units of the Hermann Goering Division, who are regarded as among the most formidable of the present German Army, and by parachutists of the Luftwaffe, who are specially picked men. We have left our mark on them without any doubt at all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was most heartening and gratifying to feel the way all parts of our team worked together from the very start of the operation, in the way we have trained to do, under the new and tense atmosphere of actual battle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The display of sheer guts and the vigour and dash in the attack by all ranks were magnificent and make individual mention well-nigh impossible, but I feel that a very special mention is due to the Medical Officer and Battalion Medical Section for their magnificent efforts to succour the wounded.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n With you I deplore the loss of our comrades and friends\u2014we shall not forget them. We may all be proud of our conduct in this action and, with remembrance of the lessons we have learned in it, face the future with high confidence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a letter to the Regiment\u2019s Welfare Officer, Major RL Richards, at the Duke of York\u2019s Headquarters, Lieut.-Colonel Good described the battalion\u2019s first battle, and added:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe battalion are in great heart and were absolutely grand throughout the whole campaign, and we are eager to get on with the job and get it over completely. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not an easy opening by any means, but the battalion were magnificent (though I say it who shouldn\u2019t). The way they went in that night, their vigour and guts and, better even than that, the way they withdrew the following morning\u2014as steady as old hands, and with never a tremor throughout the next three days. I have never felt prouder in all my life than I did then to belong to such a very fine crowd of chaps, Dick. But I never did have any doubts that they would be grand when the day came. It was grand, too, to feel that we had been training on the right lines and, though we have learned a great deal more in these weeks than for a long time, and still more to learn, there is no doubt that basically we were on the right lines during our long spell of waiting.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have sent you the list of casualties so that you will know we didn\u2019t do it without loss; some of the very best gone too, Bill Coghlin and Bunny Orr, I shall miss more than I can say, and Michael Power, too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill Brooks was magnificent and has been awarded the Military Cross, and Sergeant Madigan and Piper Brightman the Military Medal. But I am sure there are lots of others who are equally deserving of awards, but they were just not seen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They were all grand, and I am as happy as can be about the outcome and full of confidence that whatever we are asked to do we shall be able to tackle it and give a good account of ourselves.<\/em>“ Throughout the action, ammunition, food, water, and other supplies were sent up from B Echelon at the rear. The staff worked unceasingly, and the battalion were well supplied despite counter-fire by the enemy on the route forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CQMS of D Company was wounded, and as no senior non-commissioned officer could be spared a young corporal, AW Hunnex, who was at B Echelon with an injured foot, took over the quarter mastering duties. Working for long periods over difficult country and with a shortage of equipment and transport, he never failed to get the supplies through to his company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So well did he carry out his task that he carried on as acting-CQMS for three weeks until the company quartermaster returned from hospital. For his invaluable services Corporal Hunnex was awarded the BEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish remained in the line, sending out fighting patrols while a thrust went in west of the division\u2019s front. An indication that the Germans might be pulling out at any moment was given by the discovery by one of the London Irish patrols of a pile of \u201cS\u201d mines dumped near the enemy wire ready for laying. Lieutenant Crampton volunteered to take a party out and blow up the mines. For this and other successful patrols he was awarded the MC. Later Lieutenant Crampton had another ticklish job to do. He had to reconnoitre, and if possible, to capture by assault, the bridge where the Fosso Bottaceto crossed the main road. The task was based on one of the rather common theories that the enemy had nearly gone. The theory proved to be incorrect, and Lieutenant Crampton and his men had a sticky time, but he succeeded in getting his platoon out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several quiet days were spent in getting further experience of routine in contact with the enemy, and then the London Irish were withdrawn to positions south of the Gornalunga River. They were still in a partly operational role, but everyone was able to bathe in the sea, well within shell range, with no more interference than occasional machine-gunning from enemy raiders. The Germans had a similar bathing beach, but no serious attempt to disturb the bathing areas was made by either side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1st Battalion went back into the line, taking over from the Royal Berkshires on the right of the road to Catania. The ground was flat, and battalion headquarters was in a farm with dead cows all round; queer-looking, bloated shapes with legs sticking up stiffly at odd angles. Rather unwisely traffic had been allowed to circulate in daylight, and the London Irish reconnaissance to its new headquarters was greeted with a heavy mortar concentration. Major Stopford, who was on this preliminary survey, had to dive for a slit trench, along with Rifleman Johnston<\/a>, the Commanding Officer\u2019s escort. A mortar bomb exploded very close to them and a small splinter went through Major Stopford\u2019s shirt, a remarkable escape. Johnston was less fortunate and received wounds from which he died later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The offensive had gone well, and the Germans were really pulling out of Catania. The day that Catania fell was celebrated by the 1st Battalion, who were in a group of farm buildings, notable chiefly for a plentiful supply of wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the capture of Catania, 168 Brigade started a series of movements on the slopes of Mount Etna. After a night with very little rest the battalion set off at 0200 hours for a point west of Catania. They trekked along a miserable, winding path up a steep hill the rocky outcrops of which proved very troublesome to the carriers, whose tracks were often stripped. The London Irish pushed on and made contact once more with the enemy at St. Giovanni di Galermo. Movement forward was difficult. The roads were narrow, with stone walls on either side. The fields and olive groves were small and split up by stone walls, and there were lava \u201cglaciers\u201d everywhere. Even without an enemy nearby it would have been difficult to go on across country. On the other hand, there was plenty of cover for German rearguards, and the lines of advance were therefore restricted. St. Giovanni was reached but enemy mortars kept up a steady din and bullets whistled through the olive-trees. The Germans were in the adjoining village and A and C Companies were held up. D Company tried to get round from the right but ran into heavy trouble, while B Company made some progress on the left. Captain H Lofting and his men were in exposed positions, and several were wounded, including the Company Commander. Captain Lofting took shelter behind a boulder and with his men held on until darkness, before agreeing to be sent to hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another casualty was Captain Adams, of the Carriers, whose vehicle went up on a mine. During a lull Major Brooks, of C Company, arrived at battalion headquarters, tired and caked with lava dust. He and his men had had very little rest for days. \u201cHullo, Bill, what sort of a day have you had?\u201d said the Second-in-Command. \u201cFrightful,\u201d came the answer; \u201cI have been kissed by an Italian!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n St. Giovanni was a dusty little village noisy with mortar fire from both sides. During the night a plan was made to capture the next village. A powerful bombardment was laid on, but when London Irish patrols probed forward, they found the enemy had fled. As the battalion moved in they received a terrific welcome from the natives, who were more than relieved that they had not been shelled out. While grapes and other gifts were being showered on everyone, the Commanding Officer got the full force of a ripe melon on the back of his neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While operating in close country near Gravina a patrol from D Company was shot at at close range and an officer and two men were killed and several others wounded. One of the latter was badly hurt, and Lance-Corporal Byrne, who was unscathed, placed him under cover and returned to Company Headquarters, where he reported the situation. Two of the company stretcher-bearers, Corporal G Willis and Rifleman Staines, then set off, guided by Lance-Corporal Byrne, to bring back the wounded man. As they approached the spot where he had been hidden they, too, were fired on, and Rifleman Staines was wounded in the arm. The three men continued forward and managed to reach the wounded man, but for over half an hour they had to remain under cover because the slightest movement attracted enemy fire. Eventually, by breaking through a wall and crawling with the laden stretcher, they got the casualty safely back to the London Irish lines, a very gallant episode which did not go unrewarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish went on, pushing against determined groups of Germans left behind to delay the advance. Marching was done in daylight in the heat of the day, and rests were taken each night. The country was delightful and the position was such that, with the enemy on the run, the men had time to appreciate its beauty and the good nature of the Sicilians. Their welcome at times was most embarrassing. Lieutenant DA Hardy, who was in temporary command of B Company when the battalion was leading the advance, recounted that when approaching the small town of Santi Maria de Milato they were warned that Germans armed with machine-guns were waiting in hiding for them. He went forward cautiously and when they entered the town, instead of well-armed Germans, they were met by a crowd of Sicilians shouting and clapping their hands and throwing garlands of flowers. \u201cOne dark, unshaven man stood about ten yards away from me, grinning. His long arms were outstretched like a Rugby three-quarter preparing for a tackle. Suddenly he rushed in at me, threw his arms round my neck, and before I could hand him off, he brought off a resounding kiss, much to the amusement of my men,\u201d wrote Lieutenant Hardy. \u201cWe were the first to enter another village, Timone, and the church hells were ringing and the inhabitants brought out jug after jug of their rough wine, and cool water. We bowed majestically to right and left and shouted in response to their greeting \u2018Buon Giorno,\u2019 meaning \u2018Good day.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each day was like the other as the London Irish pushed northwards. Some enemy fire was encountered, but it dwindled in power. The weather continued very hot and fatigue began to show itself. When rest periods came it always seemed to be at a time when it was too hot to sleep. The grapes and cool water at the farmhouses were most welcome, and shallow basins filled with cold water made excellent bathing-pools which helped to remove the dust. One night the Royal Berkshires were forging ahead on the left of the London Irish over the spurs of Mount Etna, and C Company carried food to them over a long and strenuous route, an act which cemented the warm feeling of friendship between the two battalions, and particularly with their gallant Commanding Officer, Lieut-Colonel Ian Baird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The absence of roads caused the brigade to he squeezed out. Then 69 Brigade took over the chase, and the next stop was at Giarre, where the London Irish had their first real night\u2019s rest for about three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A clay or two later the Americans entered Messina and Sicily had been won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1st Battalion suffered about a hundred and sixty casualties, of whom forty were killed, mostly on the Catania Plain. The Divisional Commander complimented the battalion on its work and generously conceded that in the Fosso Bottaceto action his appreciation of the situation in so far as the German dispositions were concerned had been proved to be wrongly based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An amusing adventure befell one of the men during the first night at Giarre. He was well known to be attracted by the smell if not the sight of alcohol, and he succumbed to the temptation of two glasses of vino from a civilian. In a semi-comatose condition, he was found subsequently by some kindly persons and taken to a dressing-station. There he was diagnosed as being \u201cbomb happy\u201d and he settled down comfortably to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next morning, he had the inevitable hang-over, and he submitted willingly to be moved to the MDS and thence to the CCS. Here he felt better and made inquiries as to what was happening to him. He was told stories about being sent to a mental hospital in North Africa and, when he was interviewed by a doctor, he strongly protested his complete recovery. However, the medical services had him in their grip. His head was tapped with rubber hammers; they wrote down his answers to innumerable questions. By now almost hysterical, he was transferred to the General Hospital at Syracuse. There, despite his request to return to his unit, he was ear-marked for evacuation to North Africa. Fortunately, he saw an officer who seemed to have an understanding face walking through the ward. He asked leave to speak to him and told him the story. The officer consulted the medical officer, and together they asked the soldier questions and finished by telling him to get up, dress, and return to the battalion. The patient did so without delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That London Irishman was subsequently very careful about accepting drinks from strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion moved to Fiumefreddo on August 15 and spent some delightful days by the sea, swimming and doing some light training in lifting mines on the beach. In search of a less malarious area, a move was made inland to Piedimonte Etneo, a small town at the north-east foot of Mount Etna. It had not been much damaged, and the inhabitants welcomed the London Irish warmly. But the prices of everything purchasable soared, from haircuts to laundry, and strong action had to be threatened through the machinery of Allied Military Government before prices went down to reasonable levels. The battalion said good-bye to its supporting gunners, the officers and men of the 465th Battery of the 90th Field Regiment RA, which returned to England to prepare for other tasks. There was a pleasing little ceremony when the gunners were presented with a replica of \u201cThe Man of Loos\u201d to commemorate their excellent co-operation with the London Irish. Loos Day was observed at Piedimonte with a parade and service. A local composer wrote a tune for the pipes, though the battalion was still without most of the instruments, which were in the luggage on a later convoy. This prompted the Commanding Officer to declare that on any future invasion the pipes and drums would be in the first flight. Before leaving Piedimonte the wine harvest began and the sight of the conditions under which the wine was prepared drove everyone off vino. The muddy boots which trod the grapes, the creosol on the wine floor, which had been used as a mess-room, and the general lack of any attempt to keep the floor clean, were too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus finished the first campaign of the 1st Battalion and the second of the 2nd Battalion. It was regarded by high authority as a perfect little campaign, well-conceived and planned and well carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE ARMY COMMANDER TO BE READ OUT TO ALL TROOPS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “The campaign in Sicily is over.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We landed in the island on July 10. By July 20, together with our American Allies, we had driven the enemy into the north-east corner of the island. On July 30 I told you we would now drive the Germans out of Sicily and by August 17 the Germans had been driven out, and the Allied Armies, American and British, were in possession of the whole island.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In February last the Italian overseas empire had ceased to exist. To-day, August 17, 1943, we have captured our first slice the Italian home country.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In these tremendous events, you, the soldiers of the Eighth Army, have played a notable part. By your splendid fighting qualities and devotion to duty you have helped to change the whole course of the war.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is difficult to find words to tell you my true feelings. Since I assumed command of the Eighth Army in August 1942, exactly one year ago, you have given me your confidence, and you have never failed to respond to all calls I have made on you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I thank you all. And I say to you:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n WELL DONE! WELL DONE INDEED. TOGETHER, YOU AND I, WE WILL SEE THIS THING THROUGH TO THE END. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL.<\/em><\/strong> Eighth Army.<\/strong> The 1st Battalion left Messina two weeks after the 2nd Battalion, and their journey was not so comfortable or smooth running. They drove from Piedmonte to Messina in the first light rain of autumn, and it turned to a steady downpour by the time they reached port. The Commanding Officer and an advance party had gone on ahead, and Major Stopford, the Second-in-Command, had charge of the battalion and also of several hundred men from other battalions and formations in the brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he reported to the Movements office he was told they would have to remain at Messina until shipping became available. \u201cStop where?\u201d inquired Major Stopford, and a staff-sergeant in the office pointed to a mud-flat, already awash and without the slightest sign even of a tent. Like so many Movements personnel, he was either indifferent to or ignorant of the problems of maintaining large bodies of men, and he informed Major Stopford that although the London Irish were likely to be there several days, they could not possibly use some school buildings nearby, and further that the few odd lorries the battalion had with them had to sail for the mainland that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Major Stopford records that despite the attitude of Movements, he gave orders to move the men into the school buildings and endeavoured to retain one or two lorries to hold cooking equipment. \u201cThe Navy never alters its convoy arrangements,\u201d said Army Movements, so Major Stopford went to see the Naval Officer-in-Command. There he got an entirely different reception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course you must keep your trucks,\u201d he was told. That, he thought, was a welcome change from the inexcusable bureaucracy of Army Movements!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a day or two he was informed by Movements that six LCIs were available for his large party. He inspected them and found that they were intended each to hold two hundred men, but two thousand men into six LCIs just would not go. The flotilla Commander confirmed that view, and together they saw the Naval Officer-in-Command. \u201cMy dear chap,\u201d said he, \u201cyou cannot possibly go in six LCIs,\u201d and gave orders for Malta to be signalled so that more could be obtained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They duly arrived and the London Irish and the brigade personnel embarked. Outside Messina Harbour the Commander asked Major Stopford: \u201cNow, where do you want to go?\u201d They both discovered that neither had received any orders to proceed anywhere in particular. The situation of the Brigade \u201cO\u201d Group was also wrapped in mystery. \u201cI gave my guess, which was Salerno, but the Commander thought it was probably Naples, which had just been captured,\u201d said Major Stopford later. \u201cWell, let\u2019s go to Salerno, and then we can have a look at the Sorrento Peninsula on the way to Naples,\u201d replied the Commander. So off they sailed, making a slight deviation to see Stromboli in partial eruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the morning they approached Salerno. \u201cTen LCIs carrying 168 Brigade; request berthing instructions,\u201d was the signal from the small convoy. \u201cWhat have you come for?\u201d was the surprising reply. That was too much for the Commander. \u201cA summer holiday,\u201d was his response!<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the 1st Battalion landed on the mainland of Italy and marched to a camp outside Salerno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They spent several rather damp days in a bivouac camp near Salerno, and many visits were paid to Pompeii. Vesuvius was also seen at a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this time Naples had fallen, and 168 Brigade received orders to move to an area round Caserta, just south of the Volturno. Brigade headquarters and the 10th Royal Berkshires were in the Palace, a magnificent Baroque building, reputed to be second only to Versailles for size among the famous palaces of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n English-speaking guides were in attendance to show the \u201cinvaders\u201d round the state apartments, an example of the remarkable change that had come about in the Italian mind and outlook. Yesterday our enemies, to-day our \u201callies.\u201d They were, of course, following the flowing tide of the war and wanted to make sure they were not left high and dry on the rocks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n After two or three days in this area, enlivened by performances of the very popular 56th Division Concert Party, \u201cThe Cat\u2019s Whiskers,\u201d in a miniature opera-house within the Palace, the London Irish rejoined the division over the Volturno. The 56th Division now consisted of 167, 168, and 169 Brigades, and the 201 Guards Brigade, and Major-General GWR Templer, formerly of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, had taken over command from Major-General Graham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the middle of October, the Volturno River had been crossed and, supported by powerful air-raids on the railways in north and central Italy and on road transport behind the battle areas, the Fifth and Eighth Armies were pushing the Germans slowly back on the whole line from the west coast to the Apennines and across to the Adriatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The advance beyond the Volturno was proceeding with the 56th (London) Division on the right and the 46th Division on the left, with the 7th Armoured Division as a pivot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the left was flat plough-land. The main road from Naples to Rome, Highway Six, crossed the river at Capua, where the Allies had built a temporary bridge to replace the one blown up by the retreating Germans. Highway Six continued north-west across the plain for a few miles until it forked. One branch, still Highway Six, continued north and north-west towards Cassino; the other, Highway Seven, the ancient Appian Way, proceeded in a westerly direction towards the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flat country along the coast was dominated by a ridge of mountains rising to about two thousand five hundred feet from the river, and parallel to Highway Six. About ten miles from the Volturno a ridge of lesser hills, in the Calvi Risorta area, branched at right angles to the main ridge, crossing Highway Six and ending near Francolise on Highway Seven. The Germans were fighting a delaying action across both highways, concentrating on holding the high ridge on the right of the 56th Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was essential to clear the ridge before the remainder of the two British divisions could make progress in the valley below. 168 Brigade crossed the Volturno near Caserta and assembled near Pignatore, while 201 Brigade carried out a series of actions, clearing the ridge on the right. The London Irish took over a forward position near Calvi Vecchia, where Highway Six crossed a deep ravine by a bridge which the Germans had destroyed. The battalion\u2019s stay there was without incident except that any tendency to walk on skylines drew some very unpleasant attention from the nebelwerfers. On one of those occasions the battalion \u201cO\u201d Group was gathered round the orderly-room truck, and everyone scattered with remarkable rapidity. Luckily the \u201cflying drainpipes\u201d were more noisy than lethal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Scots Guards reached the mountain village of Rocclietta, where they had been held up by strong resistance from the Germans on the Calvi Risorta ridge. The plan was for the 1st London Irish to move at night into the hills to a gully behind Rocclietta and to attack the next day through the Scots Guards. The Royal Berkshires were ordered to attack farther along the ridge towards the highway, both moves having the support of the divisional artillery. The first part of the plan involved a night march up a steep goat-track. It was a precarious journey in single file, when no body of troops is well prepared for battle. Except for an odd patrol or two there were no troops on the left flank between the London Irish and the enemy, hut the march went off well, in complete silence, which was essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attack was timed for the next morning, but when the London Irish went in it was found that the enemy had withdrawn under the weight of the gunners\u2019 fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going into brigade reserve the battalion spent a few days south of the hills while preparations were made for the next move forward. American troops advanced towards Cassino on the axis of Highway Six, while the 46th Division moved parallel to the coast along Highway Seven. The 56th (London) Division was given a route along a secondary road through Teano to Roccamonfina. This village was at the foot of a large, wooded mountain, Monte San Croce, which overlooked the lower reaches of the Garigliano River. To reach it a winding road with innumerable gullies and bridges had to be traversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first objective along the road was Teano, and as the London Scottish advanced towards it they met a good deal of opposition. The London Irish were given the job of capturing high ground to the east and overlooking the town, after which the Royal Berkshires were to press through towards Roccamonfina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During a preliminary reconnaissance near a fork on Highway Six the area was bombed with some violence by American dive-bombers, causing a few casualties. On protesting to higher authority, the London Irish were not much appeased on hearing that the road-fork had been mistaken for another thirteen miles away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n After several changes in plan the attack was made, and the London Irish reached the high ground east and north of Teano. It had been held by a strong German rear-guard, some of whom were captured. The London Scottish entered an abandoned Teano, while the London Irish moved over the hills to the main road below, and the Royal Berkshires took Roccamonfina. The plan had gone very well, though there was some delay caused by enemy demolitions. They had done these with typically German thoroughness. Dozens of small bridges had been destroyed, and hundreds of trees had been felled over the roads, but the Pioneer Platoon of Headquarters Company under Lance-Sergeant W Woolf worked magnificently in removing mines and booby traps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was during the battle of Teano that tactical headquarters of the battalion was bombarded by enemy mortars, machine-guns, and by a thirty-seven-millimetre four-barrelled flak gun. With admirable coolness, the Adjutant, Captain T Sweeney, the Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant S Sharp, and their staff carried on. This steadiness under fire and devotion to duty \u2013 which throughout the Italian campaign was shown by all ranks at forward headquarters \u2013 was a notable contribution to the battalion\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enemy guns also shelled the vicinity of the observation-post held by Captain LH Crocker, of the 408th Battery of the 146th Field Regiment R.A. (Royal Cardiganshire Yeomanry), on the forward slopes of the ground captured by the London Irish. Though exposed to German fire, particularly from the flak gun at short range, Captain Crocker directed the fire of his battery until the enemy guns and mortars were silenced. For his courage and outstanding coolness, which was of the utmost value to the London Irish attack, Captain Crocker received the MC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the division went forward the country, with its gullies, hills, and ravines, aided the enemy in their steps to delay the advance. Progress by the Allies seemed slow to the outside world, but it had to be won with great effort on the part of all ranks, and not without losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next job for the London Irish was to advance through Roccamonfina and to capture Sipicciano, a village on the northern slopes of Monte San Croce and overlooking the valley before Monte Camino. It involved a trek along a mountain track on the slopes of the mountain. Enemy rearguards were brushed aside in a brief action by B and C Companies, and as the sound of Spandau fire echoed through the woodland it was difficult to know where the main body of the enemy was. Colonel Good called a halt, his intention being to rest battalion headquarters for five minutes, but the pause actually lasted a month!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The general situation had become obscure. We held a bridgehead in the valley, and in front was Calabritto with the vast mass of Monte Camino above. Towards the left could be seen the Gari River, which became the Garigliano after merging with the Liri River. Far beyond was the great white bulk of the Monastery of Monte Cassino, with Monte Cairo towering behind. The whole panorama was one of bold grandeur, and no one then knew that they were looking at what became one of the bloodiest battlefields of the war, where many thousands of brave men died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before us loomed the Gustav Line, which was regarded by the Italian Staff College as a perfect defensive position. Monte Camino was the outer bastion, and this had to be captured before any attack could be launched on the Gustav Line itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was now November 3, 1943, and the Italian winter had settled in. This belied for ever in the minds of the troops the slogan \u201cSunny Italy.\u201d Living in the open, two thousand feet above sea level, they learned to their cost that the Italian rainfall was a good deal heavier than our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The advance towards Monte Camino was complicated by the absence of decent roads, and as the stop at Sipicciano lengthened, the track there became a major supply-route and required constant rebuilding, all of which took up valuable manpower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, it was necessary to find out what was happening on the left flank. Lieutenant Morley Mower, a fluent Italian speaker, was sent on a patrol to find the nearest unit in that direction. He was away all night, and his absence caused some anxiety, but he turned up next morning full of information gathered from the local inhabitants. He ascertained that there was no unit on the left for several miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next vital stage in the fighting on this part of the front was to be the capture of Monte Camino, a gigantic task calling for the highest possible courage and planning. The London Irish had to reconnoitre the route, and it became a period of patrols to gain information in readiness for the attack. The battalion took up positions in the vicinity of Sipicciano, with battalion headquarters in the woods where earlier they had halted for \u201cfive minutes.\u201d Most of the patrols were carried out by Captain John Strick and his battle patrol. In England he had trained \u201cX\u201d Platoon, a small body of picked men expert in scouting, field-craft, and commando work, with a view to possible raids across the Channel. While at home that opportunity had not come, but here in Italy Captain Strick and his happy and faithful band of warriors proved their worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain Strick had been slightly wounded in Sicily, but after a spell in hospital he had returned to command the Carrier Platoon. When orders came to form a special battle patrol, he was obviously the man for it, and he selected all those who remained of his original \u201cX\u201d Platoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, facing Monte Camino, Captain Strick and his men carried out a number of daring and hazardous patrols, sometimes going out on to the mountain for two or more days, closely observing enemy movements and positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one occasion he went out with only three men to ascertain whether the Germans still occupied a hamlet in the hills and to note their defences. With threatening rainclouds scudding over the mountain top the party set out. All went well for two hours. They slid down precipitous cliffs, scrambled on all fours like mountain goats across steep slopes when a slip almost certainly would have meant death, and sometimes they were forced to crawl. Then the clouds burst. It rained in torrents, and as there was no cover they were soon drenched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bruised and scratched, they managed to snatch a short rest at occasional clumps of gorse and eventually reached a wooded gully where they could take a longer breather and get on their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While they were resting the small party heard running footsteps. They fell quickly to the ground, and a German crossed their path only a few feet away. He did not see them, and after he had passed the patrol crept forward stealthily and discovered an enemy mortar post fifty yards away. It was apparent that not only were the Germans still in possession of the village, but that it was well and cunningly defended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without being discovered they completed their survey of the German positions and started their equally perilous journey back. The outward trek had taken them five hours, but with the advantage of having passed over the ground before their return was a little faster. They slithered down gullies and slopes and, wet through but remarkably cheerful, they reached their company lines and after a report had been sent through, they had the satisfaction of hearing the German posts being thoroughly pounded by the divisional artillery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During another patrol, which was out for thirty hours, Captain Strick was wounded in a clash with a small party of Germans, but the enemy were forced to flee and the patrol got back. Among the members of Captain Strick\u2019s intrepid band of adventurers were Sergeant G Murphy, Lance-Corporal J Short, Rifleman William Scott, and Rifleman Jack Armstrong, his batman. Several of them later were killed in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first attack on Monte Camino took place in November 1943 and was carried out by 201 Guards Brigade. The attack started from the positions of the 1st Battalion London Irish in the vicinity of Sipicciano, and despite very gallant efforts the Guards were unable to complete their task. It was a stupendous one for a single brigade and eventually they were withdrawn. Their magnificent fight was in the Guards tradition, and though they were ordered back they did so coolly and methodically. Some of the ground they had taken at the foot of the mountain was held, and it became the jumping-off place for the second attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the whole of November, therefore, the 1st Battalion remained around Sipicciano. There was some shelling, but casualties were light. Visiting the companies on their wide front was a lengthy job and involved traversing open ground, which often drew mortar fire. This was more disturbing than accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Announcement was made at this time of Lieut-Colonel Good\u2019s DSO, which he had been awarded for the action on Catania Plain. The irrepressible Corporal Newcombe, familiar to all 1st Battalion men as \u201cCorporal F.,\u201d the Post-Corporal and Piper, decided to obtain the necessary ribbon for the decoration. Inquiries at division were fruitless, but a journey to corps headquarters brought news of a Brigadier with a DSO. How he negotiated the matter with the Brigadier\u2019s batman is not known, but \u201cCorporal F.\u201d obtained a DSO ribbon from one of the Brigadier\u2019s tunics and he presented it to the Commanding Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The month was very wet, and the battalion still lived in \u201cbivvies\u201d in the open. The most common bed was leaf-mould, which though soft was seldom dry. Sleep of necessity was short, because of the need regularly to \u201cstand-to.\u201d If one did not happen to be on duty in the period immediately before, to get up needed considerable effort. That, of course, was part of the routine of a soldier\u2019s life and applied to all ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n News then came that the 56th (London) Division had been selected to take part in a further attack on Monte Camino, the operation coinciding with an attack by the Americans on the twin feature of Monte la Difensa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monte Camino, rising a sheer three thousand feet from the surrounding valleys, was crowned with a small monastery, and the whole feature was about six thousand yards wide and seven thousand yards in depth. The Americans were on the north-east section and the British on the south-east. The mountain was rocky, steep, and bare, and on the British side the only approach for laden men was up a steep, zigzag mule-track leading from a village called Mieli. The existence of this track was well known to the Germans and was marked on all the maps. On the western side Monte Camino was less steep, and on the German side it sloped down to the Garigliano River. Rocca D\u2019Evandro, a village connected by a twisting road to the valley below, was on the western side. This road was invaluable to the enemy because they could transport supplies by lorry, while our so-called mule-track was largely too steep and rough even for mules, and everything had to be manhandled. A patrol base was established in the Mieli area, and on one occasion Rifleman W. Garrod, a mechanic in the transport section, escorted three bantams carrying rations to the patrol. While leading the way in the darkness his motorcycle and two of the bantams drove into a large shell crater filled with water. The trucks were immobilised by the water, but Rifleman Garrod repaired the damage in the dark and they set off once again. The rations got through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second attack on Monte Camino was timed for December 3. 169 Brigade (The Queen\u2019s) was to attack the Monastery Peak on the east of the feature and a knife-edged spur leading south from it. 167 Brigade was to go in north and north-west from Mieli, up the axis of the mule-track, with 168 Brigade passing through later. 201 Guards Brigade was to capture the south-western part of the mountain. At the same time the 46th Division had to clear the low ground to the south-west, while the Americans, on the right, tackled Monte la Difensa. In the first part of the operation the London Irish were placed under the command of 167 Brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attack opened with a tremendous shoot by the gunners, which was the biggest bombardment since El Alamein. Everything passed overhead on to known enemy positions. The night was lit up by Bofors tracer and the cannonade from six hundred guns brought a lurid glare to the sky. General Mark Clark subsequently observed that Camino should be called the \u201cMillion Dollar Mountain\u201d as so many shells were fired at it. The total was estimated at one thousand three hundred tons, an amount of explosive equivalent to a major air-raid on Berlin or another large German city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fight was a bitter one. The infantry had an almost super-human task for, despite the terrific bombardment, the Germans held on grimly to their mountain fortress. In the darkness and in drenching rain the heavily laden infantry slowly climbed the wooded lower slopes of the mountain towards the rocky barren crests. Above them the enemy sheltered in entrenchments which had taken weeks of forced labour to prepare, and in machine\u2011gun posts which had been excavated out of solid rock. Lightly equipped fighting patrols went on ahead and the assault troops followed. Air and long\u2011range photographs of the mountain had been studied in great detail, and the way upwards had been carefully planned to a time\u2011table. One complete brigade passed through a narrow gap in single file. There was only room for one man at a time, but the long approach climb was carried out as planned and almost to the minute. Jumping\u2011off places for the assault were below the jagged peaks. There was some cover, but it was impossible to dig in. Rough sangars were hastily built, but they were inadequate against the enemy\u2019s fire and many men were hit. The attack went in and the Germans resisted fiercely. Small vantage\u2011points were gained after bloody combat, but progress was slow. Almost every yard might cost a life. For eight days everyone clung on. Rain came in torrents and the nights were intensely cold. Gradually a strangle\u2011hold was obtained when the Allied troops took vital ridges overlooking the German supply\u2011lines. The London Irish did their part. A Company captured Formelli, a small village on the track to Rocca D\u2019Evandro, the Germans\u2019 supply artery. 201 Brigade and 169 Brigade manfully made frontal assaults among the heights, and when the American 11th Corps secured most of the Monte la Difensa, it was the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain DA Gibson, of the London Irish mortars, directed and co\u2011ordinated the mortar fire of four battalions in an all\u2011out effort to subdue the enemy on Monastery Hill. There was enemy counter\u2011fire, but the men at the mortars remained steady and their accurate shooting added to the gradual demoralisation of the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The defenders of the Monastery Peak realised they were losing all chance of escape and one night the monastery was unexpectedly abandoned. Within a day or two the Germans had left the whole feature. The London Scottish passed on to Rocca D\u2019Evandro and the London Irish were withdrawn, very wet, tired, and dirty after an eight days\u2019 gruelling attack. They had been in it longer than anyone else, though chief credit for the success of the well\u2011planned operation must go to the Queen\u2019s of 169 Brigade, the Royal Fusiliers of 167 Brigade, and the Guards, who fought with great dash and spirit despite heavy losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish were fairly fortunate in their casualties, which totalled about eighty. Among the killed was Lieutenant Terry Barry<\/a>, a capable and gallant officer. It had been a very hard battle, requiring dogged endurance, with none of the exhilaration of the quick attack. The carrying-parties had a gruelling time. Every night almost the entire personnel of A and B Echelons carried supplies of all kinds up the Mieli mule\u2011track under constant shelling by the enemy. It was most exhausting work and the journey took several hours. Many men did it twice in a single night, a remarkable test of stamina and endurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stretcher\u2011bearers of the battalion again worked splendidly in succouring their wounded comrades. During the occupation of Formelli a signaller of the gunners\u2019 observation\u2011post party was wounded while putting down a line on the track leading to the village. Piper E Riley and Rifleman H Hughes, the stretcher-eaters of A Company, volunteered to bring him in. German machine\u2011guns swept the road and twice they were forced back. Undeterred, they made a third attempt by another route, reached the wounded man, and brought him back to the London Irish lines safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excellent work, also, was done throughout by the signals section of the London Irish under Lieutenant HD Miller. He led frequent parties to repair lines broken by enemy fire. Communications were vital, and when they were interrupted, they never remained so longer than could possibly be avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many men died on Monte Camino, in the two attacks. Several months later French mountain troops trained there for the attack on the main Gustav Line, and they were so impressed with the achievement that they erected on the summit a memorial to the fallen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the capture of Monte Camino an important change\u2011round took place. The 46th Division took over that sector of the front, and the 56th Division moved to the coastal sector facing the Garigliano. We were sorry to see 201 Guards Brigade leave the division, for they had been stalwart comrades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish had by this time reverted to 168 Brigade, and the brigade went out of the line for the first time for two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The closing weeks of 1943 saw the battalion in billets in Cascano, a pleasant little town six miles from the Garigliano. The billets were poor in themselves, but luxuries to those to, whom a roof and a dry room were a palace. The second Christmas overseas was enjoyed there, and Captain Bonham\u2011Carter took the opportunity of presenting the battalion concert party, the \u201cLiricals,\u201d in an excellent show, the chief memory of which was the leader representing the Spirit of Monte Camino and singing a song that \u201d They\u2019ve put \u2018S\u2019 mines at the bottom of my garden.\u201d It was indeed extraordinary that in between bloody and fearsome battles, in which they played their full part, the men of the concert party could produce topical jokes and sketches and sing and dance. That, perhaps, is a gift peculiar to the British.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout its war service the battalion was deeply grateful to Captain Bonham\u2011Carter and his assistants, notably the \u201cTwo Twerps\u201d (Sergeant S Handcock and Sergeant E Thurston), CQMS Robinson, Corporal Hone, Rifleman Odell, and the other members of the concert party, who spent so much of their leisure hours working on behalf of the men of the battalion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reinforcements came to the battalion, and among the changes at that period were the appointments of Major WE Brooks, MC, as Brigade Major, Lieutenant S. Sharp as Brigade Intelligence Officer, Major Cummings taking over C Company, Lieutenant A Mace, Battalion Intelligence Officer, and Captain Crozier succeeding him as Mechanical Transport Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a special message to all ranks in the battalion, the Commanding Officer, Lieut\u2011Colonel Good, spoke of the two exacting trials which the battalion had undergone during the month. The first was the holding of the Sipicciano position, a long, rather inactive task under most trying conditions of weather. Owing to the wide deployment of the battalion it was not possible for much rest to, be obtained by any individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith hardly a break the battalion was then committed to a mountain operation of a most exacting nature,\u201d<\/em> wrote the Commanding Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quite apart from the physical strain of this operation combined with the most appalling weather conditions, the role of the battalion in reserve to 167 Brigade meant that our tasks and orders changed rapidly with a changing situation. As it turned out, at no time did we have the satisfaction of having a task to do and completing it to, our own satisfaction and knowing that we had achieved something definite and tangible. All the time we had to sit and \u2018take it\u2019 from enemy artillery and mortars without being able to, do very much in return. I know of no harder test of any unit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have been most impressed with the magnificent way the whole battalion has come through these tests, no matter what the conditions of weather, shell\u2011fire, and so on were. Companies, platoons, and individuals stuck it and stuck to their job without flinching. The Brigade Commander has told me, too, how very impressed he and others have been with the cheerfulness and willing spirit apparent throughout the battalion during the whole period.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to give a special word of praise to the mortars. I am quite convinced that their accurate shooting on to Monastery Hill during the day when the Huns finally abandoned it had a great deal to do with the final quitting of that feature by the Huns. A very special word of praise and thanks is due, too, to, those from Headquarters Company, A and B Echelons, who did porter duties up the hill night after night. They were grand, and we should be more than grateful to them for their efforts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To all of you I should like to express my heartiest congratulations and grateful thanks for the way you have carried oil, keeping the traditions of the London Irish Rifles right at the top, where they should always be and where 1 have no doubt they will always remain.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have not yet quite finished with this party, but I hope that we shall get a period of proper rest soon. Meantime I am sure that anything we are called on to do we can do, and that better than anybody else.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nineteen Forty Four was the bloodiest year of the war for the 1st Battalion: its ranks were sorely depleted by heavy losses on four occasions. First at Castelforte, in the period now to be recounted, twice at Anzio which followed, and then during the long, bitter struggle for the Gothic Line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On New Year\u2019s Day they went back into positions on the south bank of the River Garigliano. Battalion headquarters, a rifle company, and Headquarters Company were housed in the pretty little hamlet of Garigliano, hidden in the wooded hill\u2011side between the Sessa\u2011Arunca road and the riverbank. One company was on the brow of the hill immediately overlooking the river, and another was nearby at Aconorosi, with the fourth at Gualpi, a village three miles away. As the outlying companies had to live in the open with onerous guard and patrol duties, reliefs were sent forward every four days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion\u2019s main job was to prevent any infiltration by the enemy south of the river, to observe any movements on the far bank, to reconnoitre and make safe any possible routes to the Garigliano, and to examine the area towards the mouth of the river for possible crossings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ground sloped steeply from the Sessa road to the bank and was densely covered with trees. Except for a few villages tucked away in the woods, and an isolated farmhouse or two, the country was uninhabited. There were neither roads nor tracks, apart from the main road, but only dry water\u2011courses strewn with boulders. These courses were sometimes wide, but at other times so steep and narrow that it was possible to touch both sides with ease. Garigliano was completely screened from German observation and the paths down to the river from the London Irish side were almost entirely under cover. On the other hand, excellent views of the German positions could be had from \u201cgrandstand garrets\u201d in the top stories of the houses in Garigliano and Aconorosi. One important part of the riverbank could not be seen and that was why a rifle company was stationed well forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entire donkey force of the villages was requisitioned to carry supplies, and also the company quartermaster sergeants on their rounds. The Commanding Officer, the Adjutant, and Lieutenant Mace, the Intelligence Officer, walked many miles each day, usually before breakfast, and they too might have journeyed on donkeys, but Colonel Good was far too tall. It was quicker and more comfortable in his case to walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain John Strick, the leader of the battle patrol, carried out several day\u2011time reconnaissances in full view of the enemy by the simple method of dressing as an Italian peasant and wandering occasionally with natives along the banks of the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mines left behind at odd places by the Germans proved a nuisance, and before the assault crossing of the river caused more casualties than enemy fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan for the operation was for the 46th Division to attack on the right and capture high ground beyond the river; the .5th Division, which had been transferred from the Adriatic front, was to move on the left; and in the centre 167 and 169 Brigades were to cross through 168 Brigade, which was to follow them over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the 46th Division sector the hills rose straight from the river; on the other two sections there was a plain between one thousand and three thousand yards deep before the ground rose sharply. This plain extended for about ten thousand yards from the sea on the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The German plan, as was learned later, was to hold the low ground comparatively lightly, sow it extensively with deeply buried box\u2011mines which consisted of little except wood and explosive, thus giving hardly any response to mine\u2011detectors and to hold positions on the high ground behind. From there they could observe the projected crossing\u2011places along the river below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dominated as it was by enemy\u2011held mountains and foothills in the background, the plain was barely wide enough to concentrate a large force. In fact, no such force was available for the operation. It had been devised by High Command to coincide with the landings on the beaches at Anzio, which were intended to draw troops away from other fronts in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The assault began at 2100 hours on January 18. A small red ball floated across the still, star\u2011spangled sky and landed gently as thistledown on a German post over the river. That was the signal. Five hundred guns. of all calibres thundered a terrific bombardment. Under cover of a smoke\u2011screen and with covering fire by men of the London Irish and other supporting troops, the Queen\u2019s Brigade and 167 Brigade swept across, some of the latter in assault boats manned by men of the battalion. As the British troops neared the opposite bank German eighty\u2011eight\u2019s spat viciously overhead or in the river. On the south bank mortars kept up a bombardment in close support; the three\u2011inch mortar platoon of the London Irish, under Lieutenant DA Hardy, alone fired over six hundred rounds in less than sixty minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The river was fifty to one hundred yards wide and was running strongly and fast, owing to the winter rains. It was far too swift on the right, where the banks were precipitous, so that the 46th Division was unable to land. The crossings by the 56th (London) Division and the 5th Division, farther down the river, went according to plan. By dawn on the 19th a bridgehead had been forced, including the small town of San Lorenzo which guarded the approaches to Castelforte and the valley beyond. On the evening of that day German reaction developed and the London Irish were suddenly sent across to help make 167 Brigade\u2019s landing secure, to occupy San Lorenzo, and to prepare to attack Castelforte at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rising above the river in front of the 56th Division was Monte Damiano, with lower spurs running south and east. In the heart of the hills north\u2011east of Damiano, was the small town of Castelforte, which was connected to the valley below by two nearly parallel roads. In the valley was a third road along the lower edge of the mountain. Where the roads from Castelforte met this road stood San Lorenzo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commanding Officer and his \u201cO\u201d Group, crossing ahead of the battalion established themselves in a farmhouse about a thousand yards from the banks and roughly midway between the river and Monte Damiano. The house was well observed by the Germans, and consequently it was heavily shelled. Several direct hits were made, but it had thick stone walls and suffered surprisingly little damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Battalion headquarters of the Oxford and Bucks was housed there also, and there was a certain amount of confusion with two staffs in conference at the same time, and with dispatch riders and runners coming and going. There was an animated scene which added to the chaos when an officer discovered he had lost his only pair of blue silk pyjamas and suspected he had been robbed. A search of the building was made, and even the kit of other ranks was examined, but the garment was never found, and the officer had to sleep in his pants until such time as he managed to acquire another pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main body of the battalion crossed the river and harboured in various farms near the river, waiting for orders to attack Castelforte. They came under shell and mortar fire, and Major H Lofting, commanding B Company, was wounded. Captain Bonham\u2011Carter took over the company. Shelling continued while the work of getting supplies over followed. This job was a pretty tough one, for the enemy were doing their utmost to prevent a build\u2011up in strength. The ground from the river was, pitted with shell holes, and the men scrambled and struggled up the slopes with their heavy burdens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A strong patrol led by Lieutenant Mills went out about midnight with orders to clean up Castelforte prior to the continued advance by the brigade. Higher Command believed that the town was held only by rear\u2011guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The patrol went along the right\u2011hand road from San Lorenzo .and met strong opposition on the outskirts of the town. Lieutenant Mills sent back all the patrol except himself and three men and decided to remain and find out all he could about the German strength in the town. He was wounded but managed the following night to stumble into the headquarters of A Company, where he made his report. Covered with blood; and wounded in several places, he gave an outline of what he believed was the position and revealed what had not been known before\u2011that the enemy had brought up some tanks into that difficult locality. The three other men did not return. Captain Strick then went out with his battle patrol on a further reconnaissance of the enemy\u2019s positions, and this time they avoided both roads and cut across the hilly ground in between. With two non\u2011commissioned officers and six riflemen, Captain Strick set out at one o\u2019clock in the morning and in the moonlight got to the outskirts of Castelforte in an hour, which was very good progress. At the first block of houses Captain Strick passed down a side street, hoping to get round to the other side of the town without being seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was suspected that the houses were full of booby traps and mines. The patrol halted at a road junction and divided, Captain Strick going in one direction with four men and the others in another. Suddenly there was a loud explosion, and they all threw themselves to the ground. They thought they had been discovered and that a hand grenade had been thrown. A quick look round revealed that some of the party had been hit by a mine. The patrol sergeant, Sergeant G Murphy, was killed, another man was badly wounded, and Captain Strick had injuries not so serious to his arms and side. The wounded man was hurriedly attended and left under the protection of some trees. Captain Strick, despite his wounds continued forward cautiously with the remaining adventurers. At one time they heard German voices, and as they carefully approached what they took to be the main street of the town they saw a large body of Germans marching along. They had a further quick look round and were satisfied that Castelforte was held in considerable force, and not by just a handful. Then, as Captain Strick was beginning to feel the effects of his wounds, they set off on the return journey. They found the wounded man propped up against a tree, calmly smoking a cigarette. They put him on a ladder and carried him to a house nearby. Luckily, they were clear of the German positions, but instead of being empty, they found the cellar of the house filled with men, women, and children, all natives of the town, who had sheltered in one of the few buildings not demolished by the artillery bombardment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They had refused to leave and had preferred to run the risk of staying in \u201cno\u2011man\u2019s land\u201d while the battle swirled past. They were able to give Captain Strick valuable information about the mines and traps in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The patrol then left, rejoining the second party, who also had succeeded in avoiding the enemy, and they returned safely to headquarters with their mission accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In spite of the reports from the London Irish patrols the capture of Castelforte was still regarded by higher authority as a minor operation, and that only one company, or at the most two, should make the attack. Colonel Good decided to attack with two companies; C Company under Major Cummins to proceed on the flank west from San Lorenzo and to take advantage of cover from the woods on the lower slopes of Monte Damiano, while A Company on their right, under Captain Grace, was to attack from the south. D Company was to cover the other companies from the higher slopes of the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D Company reached their objective and dug in by scraping about eighteen inches of earth from among the rocks and building stone sangars round the shallow holes. They proved rather uncomfortable shelters, as shell and mortar bursts caused not only metal to fly but also a hail of chipped rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attack started at 1100 hours in daylight. The line of advance was incredibly difficult for everyone. The slopes of Monte Damiano were terraced with steps of chipped stone and packed earth, each six to eight feet high. The flat terraces between each step were covered with dense trees, through which the troops had to struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Major Cummins got as far as he could with his men and then went forward to observe the enemy. It was obvious that the Germans were well prepared and on the alert. They intended to stay until they were forced out by overwhelming strength. There were tanks and self\u2011propelled guns in close support of their infantry. The small reconnaissance party from C Company was discovered, and in a brush with an enemy post Major Cummins was wounded and was unable to regain contact with his company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As both A and C Companies had reached a point where they were almost exposed to view from the town and any movement attracted the German gunners, it was considered unwise to attempt any further advance by day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A night attack was arranged. This began at 0100 hours, after an artillery preparation which had opened fifteen minutes too soon. It was understood that the London Irish attack would synchronise with one by a battalion of the Queen\u2019s from the north and farther up the river. That proved not to be so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain W Byrne, who had assumed command of C Company, launched his men forward unsuspectingly and the company ran into a strong force of Germans hidden in a wide ditch. The enemy allowed most of the company to pass by and then opened up with small arms. The forward sections of the company were killed or captured, but the remainder managed to extricate themselves in the darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Company, on the right, also had a bad time. As they crawled through the enemy wire and mine\u2011fields, the Second\u2011in\u2011Command, Lieutenant Crampton, trod on an \u201cS\u201d mine. Instead of throwing himself down as trained to do and in that way possibly escaping personal injury, he kept his foot firmly on the mine. This delayed the mine\u2019s jump in the air before it exploded. Lieutenant Crampton called out to everyone round him to get down, and as they did so the mine blew up on the ground, destroying one of Lieutenant Crampton\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His action undoubtedly saved the lives of several men near him and was a fine example of cool, calculated courage and lightning decision. Lieutenant Crampton remained seriously ill for some time but fortunately recovered. He was awarded the George Medal for his action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the company moved on into the south of Castelforte and got there just before dawn. Contact with them then was lost. Their wireless broke down and runners were unable to get through. For twenty\u2011four hours there was no word, and as a party was being organised to go to their aid, a faint call was picked up by signallers at Tactical Headquarters. It gave A Company\u2019s call sign, but it could only just be heard. It indicated that at least one member of the company was still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An hour or so after dark on this second day a patrol, consisting of a non\u2011commissioned officer and two riflemen, reached Tactical Headquarters from A Company. They told a remarkable story. It appeared that when Captain Grace had realised he could not continue to advance along the line of the upper road from San Lorenzo, he turned back and worked his way with his men along the right\u2011hand road to Castelforte. All went well until they reached the edge of the town, when for the second time they ran on to a mine\u2011field. Captain Grace and a few others were wounded, but they all managed to get into two unoccupied houses on the fringe of the town before light came. Though they were completely surrounded by Germans no one came near them, but they had a nasty shock when two enemy self\u2011propelled guns drew up alongside and fired some rounds towards the river. The enemy did not suspect that they had a party of the London Irish in their midst. German soldiers went in and out of other houses in the vicinity, but no one came near A Company. Had they revealed their presence they would, of course, have been at once wiped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When night came again, the patrol who told this story bravely made their way back to the beleaguered men and very stealthily the depleted company were guided back to the London Irish lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enemy now gave further proof that they intended to hold Castelforte and perhaps to throw the British troops back over the river. Counter\u2011attacks were launched all along the north bank. D Company on Monte Damiano and B Company in and around San Lorenzo were shelled heavily. Tactical Headquarters was hit, and among the wounded were Major Alec Smith, the able and energetic battery commander of the 65th Field Regiment RA, and also Sergeant Thurston of the signals section. One shell bursting on the terraces destroyed a day\u2019s precious water supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monte Damiano D Company Headquarters also got a direct hit, and Captain Sir James Henry, the Company Commander, was, seriously wounded. Another casualty was CSM McDaid. The company positions were heavily attacked, and in close fighting Lieutenant Morley-Mower<\/a> was killed. The men fought on under Lieutenant Spiller and Sergeant Alf Fry, a splendid non-commissioned officer, whose death later at Anzio was a loss to the battalion. The attack was beaten off, and Sergeant Fry\u2019s fearlessness was an example to all those under him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Major Mahon, the Officer Commanding Headquarters Company, was sent up to Damiano to help with a composite company from headquarters, and the position was held. One of the members of the signals section, Lance\u2011Corporal F Norman, was wounded in the arm and leg while serving with D Company on Monte Damiano. His wireless set was damaged, but despite his, wounds and the appalling weather on the mountain\u2011side he crawled from one slit trench to another and found another set. He crawled back with it but found that it would not work. He calmly stripped both sets and with parts from each got one set to operate. Communications with battalion headquarters were resumed, and he was then sent back to the regimental aid\u2011post for treatment. After his wounds had been dressed, he noticed that headquarters, were woefully short of signals personnel, so he quietly settled down to work there. It was not until he was wounded again by enemy shell\u2011fire that he was forced to give up and was sent to hospital. For his bravery and outstanding devotion to duty Lance\u2011Corporal Norman received the DCM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hard fighting continued, and there was tense hand\u2011to\u2011hand combat among the sangars and terraces above and in the woodlands below. Farther along Monte Damiano the enemy pressed, but Colonel Baird\u2019s men held firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All the troops who crossed the Garigliano up to that time had with them only light weapons which they had carried in the boats or rafts. In but a few instances could vehicles such as heavy mortars and anti\u2011tank guns be ferried over. At San Lorenzo a few tanks managed to get across, and they helped in its defence. In this battle a rather depleted A Company under Lieutenant Ray Mullins (later Captain Mullins) joined B Company, and when the enemy Panzers tried to force their way through from Castelforte they got an unexpectedly warm welcome and were compelled to turn back. During this fighting Captain Bonham\u2011Carter was wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A fourth day was spent in holding the bridgehead. A Company joined the gallant garrison on Monte Damiano, and slowly the German effort spent itself. They had suffered very heavy losses with little result, and the Garigliano crossing was secured. Three bridgeheads were made on a seven\u2011mile front and within a few days they had been enlarged to a depth of two miles. The attacking divisions, the 56th (London) Division and the 5th Division, had attained their main objectives and held them against the fierce reaction of the enemy, but there were no fresh troops immediately available to pass through, the 46th Division having already been called in. A pause, therefore, had to be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Casualties on our side had been heavy and the London Irish, now sadly weakened, were relieved in the line by the Hampshires of the 46th Division. They went back across the river to Sessa Arunca to rest. While there, news came that Lieutenant Ralph Budd<\/a>, a former first\u2011class non\u2011commissioned officer who rose from the rank of rifleman in the early days of the war to the rank of CSM, and was commissioned in the field, had been killed in his first action as an officer with the London Scottish. Two London Scottish sergeants had been attached to the London Irish on being commissioned. One of them, Lieutenant Henderson<\/a>, served with C Company and died of wounds received at Castelforte; the other, Lieutenant Butch Valentine, was wounded in the fighting with B Company at San Lorenzo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the battle for the Garigliano bridgehead every man in the battalion had played his part. A and B Echelons again accomplished an almost superhuman task in getting food, water, and ammunition to the forward companies. Every single box of ammunition and can of water had to be carried by hand to the men of A and D Companies on the top of Monte Damiano. Climbing the many terraces by day unencumbered was hard enough, but to do it by night, heavily burdened and sometimes under fire, was a magnificent achievement. Never once did the men in the forward lines go short. Great and valuable work was done also by the native African troops who did portering duties during the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish casualties were twelve officers and about a hundred and eighty other ranks, and in a message of commendation to the battalion Lieut-Colonel Good said the Divisional Commander and the Brigadier had expressed their sorrow at the losses sustained but that the battalion had responded splendidly to the calls made upon it. \u201cNow we must lick our wounds and get ready for the next bout as quickly as possible, making sure that we maintain and enhance the high name of the London Irish Rifles under all circumstances,\u201d wrote the Colonel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plans were made for another attack on Castelforte and in six days the battalion once more crossed the Garigliano. All was being prepared for action when suddenly the telephone rang at battalion headquarters. The Commanding Officer answered it and turning to the Adjutant said: \u201cIt\u2019s all off, we are going to Anzio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion left the Garigliano sector and went to Capua. New officers and men arrived as reinforcements, but there was no time for them to settle in or even do any training. A strangely new and loosely knit battalion then set off for another sanguinary battlefield \u2013 the beachhead at Anzio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OWARDS the end of 1943, the weather throughout the battle areas was appalling and the enemy, profiting by the mountainous country, the snow, rain, and mud, the poor roads and the flooded valleys, had successfully slowed up and eventually halted the Allied advance along the whole Italian front, from the Apennines to the sea. The natural defences north and south of Cassino and the lower Garigliano Valley gave the enemy an advantage, and here the Germans established the strong Gustav Line, manned by many new troops, notably highly trained mountain fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their firm resistance showed that they intended to stand on that line for the rest of the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Allied Command knew that a frontal assault would, on its own, be long and costly, and that the best chance of an early success would be an outflanking movement coupled with a frontal attack. The Germans, it was thought, would be forced to react to meet the new threat by withdrawing entirely from the main front to avoid being cut off, or to counter with reserves from such vital places as France and Yugoslavia. The Fifth Army\u2019s right flank, based on some of the highest *mountains in central Italy, was bad country for an outflanking move, and the only alternative was a sea-borne operation. So, it was decided to land an outflanking force on the western coast of Italy, about thirty miles south of Rome in the neighbourhood of the two ancient towns of Anzio, formerly Antium, birthplace of the Emperor Nero, and Nettuno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A combined British and American force was chosen for the operation. Two divisions were to be employed in the early stages, the 3rd US Division, commanded by Major-General Truscott, which had been withdrawn from the southern front and concentrated north of Naples, and the 1st British Infantry Division, which had come to Italy from Tunisia and was concentrated south of Cerignola, on the Adriatic coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The secret of the 1st Division\u2019s switch from the Eighth Army to the Fifth had to be kept closely guarded, and in due course, with its divisional signs obliterated, the 1st Division Headquarters found itself at Fifth Army Headquarters, in the royal palace of Caserta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan of operations was for landings to be made on the Nettuno beaches, in the port of Anzio, itself, and on the beaches north of Anzio. The objective was to secure an initial beachhead with its right flank on the Mussolini Canal and the left flank on the Diavolo River and possibly move forward to the dominating feature of Colli Laziali, the historical Alban Hills that loomed over the entire beachhead, and then to control the two main roads that led from Rome to, Frosinone and to Cassino. Rome, the glittering prize, lay thirty miles to the north-west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Alban Hills, fifteen miles from the coast, were a volcanic mass two thousand feet high, and they dominated the two roads leading to the south. One, Highway Six, passed through Valmontone and Frosinone, and the other, less important strategically, was the famous Appian Way, which ran a straight course from the Eternal City, through Cisterna and Terracina, to the south. Farther east, Cisterna was overshadowed by the massive Lepini Hills, which in places were three thousand six hundred feet high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From Anzio a straight Roman road went due north to join the Appian Way four miles north-west of Albano. It was well made, with a good surface, and was the only good short cut. All the other roads in the beachhead area, where they were not mere tracks, branched sharply cast or west after leaving Anzio, and reached the Appian Way only by circuitous ways. As a result of there being only one main road north from the coast most of the subsequent fighting centred round it, and that was where the 1st Battalion London Irish Rifles and the rest of the 168 Brigade had their most ferocious and bitter fighting of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the east and west of the road was a dense mass of woodland, mostly cork-oak, and all matted together by tangled undergrowth. Once unhealthy bog land and part of the notorious Pontine Marshes, large areas had been reclaimed, and farming settlements had been formed. One of these was known as Aprilia and was on the main road about nine miles north of Anzio. By common consent the settlement buildings became known as the \u201cFactory\u201d, and they were the centre of much fierce fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the beachhead area were also numerous canals and irrigation channels and deep wadis which, when the rains fell, became quickly flooded. Some of the wadis were fifty feet deep with sheer sides, and below there was undergrowth as dense as a Central American jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preceded by mine-sweepers and guarded in the air and on the sea, the landing force set off in convoys from Salerno Bay and the Bay of Naples on the night of January 21. Enemy resistance at first was slight and the port of Anzio quickly fell to the Americans. The enemy had been taken completely by surprise. There was only a thin screen of infantry outposts and coast-watching patrols, mainly supplied by tired units sent to rest from the front farther south. But a strong counter-attack force, including seasoned paratroopers and tanks, was readily available. The weather for the first two days of the landing was perfect, and the Anglo-American forces were able to build up their stores, transport, and the rest. The American 3rd Division advanced north-cast towards Cisterna, and the 1st British Division proceeded northwards up the main axis of the Anzio-Carroceto-Albano road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Germans reacted quickly to this new threat, and a line of resistance was built up round the whole beachhead. With the help of tanks and artillery they began to contest with determination all Allied attempts to secure a firm baseline from which to branch out. Ten days after the first landing the British troops were about thirteen miles north of Anzio, and the Americans were about the same distance to the east. On the western flank the numerous parallel ridges and wadis offered adequate cover from ground observation and provided assembly areas for the enemy, as did the wadis running roughly from north to south on the other flank. The Germans had strong, natural defensive positions on the northern tip of the beachhead, which faced the snow-clad heights of the Alban Hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enemy realised vividly the potential danger of the landing, and it became known that the Fuehrer himself had ordered that not merely should the Allied forces be contained but that the beachhead be expunged. It became the over-riding priority on the list of German military engagements, and reinforcements were sent not only from north Italy, but also from Germany and elsewhere. It was estimated that a counterattack force of four divisions, including an armoured division, had been assembled to drive the British and American forces back into the sea. It was in the face of this enemy build-up and the imminent threat of a German offensive on a large scale that 168 Brigade arrived at Anzio on February 2. By the evening of the following day the enemy began their effort, heralded by intense concentrations of artillery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their initial attacks were on the somewhat vulnerable flanks of the salient formed by the 1st Division. The intention was to cut off the salient at the root and to isolate the forces at the northern end. In the fighting that followed, men of the 24th Guards Brigade, the Gordons, the King\u2019s Shropshire Light Infantry, the Duke of Wellington\u2019s Regiment, and others put up a magnificent fight, but the Germans succeeded in infiltrating on both flanks with tanks and heavy-calibre anti-tank guns, as well as with infantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were constant thrusts, and early on the 4th, with the general position critical, 168 Brigade came under the command of the 1st Division and stood by to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1st Battalion of the Regiment had had an uneventful voyage from Pozzuoli, although there had been reports of enemy submarine activity between Anzio and Gaeta. There was also a tip and-run raid by German aircraft prior to their landing at Anzio, but the battalion suffered no harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They landed on February 3, and the next day began to \u201cdig in\u201d in what was regarded as a corps \u201cstop-line.\u201d Heavier German attacks were expected, and this line was ordered as a precaution. Hardly had the two forward companies started on this task than a change of plan was announced. The Commanding Officer received orders to take the battalion at once into the line and relieve a regiment of the Reconnaissance Corps in the area of Aprilia, or the \u201cFactory,\u201d on the road south of Carroceto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this time the formidable enemy attacks had cut across the 1st Division\u2019s salient and the 3rd Infantry Brigade in the north prong had virtually been cut off. In addition, the enemy were developing their attacks southwards but were being held by the 24th Guards Brigade in positions west of Aprilia to the Buonriposa Ridge. To enable the 3rd Infantry Brigade to withdraw, a counterattack was launched by the London Scottish with the assistance of the 46th Royal Tank Regiment. Good progress was made, and while fourteen British tanks stood on the former German positions, the three battalions of the 3rd Infantry Brigade were withdrawn. Despite the great difficulties of such a move in comparative daylight-it was 1715 hours and in close contact with the enemy the operation was successfully carried out. Every effort was made to bring back heavy equipment, such as anti-tank guns, but some had to be abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to straighten the line, the London Scottish and a battalion of the Gordons were ordered to disengage from the enemy and to withdraw slightly south, together with remnants of an Irish Guards battalion who had been putting up, a great fight against heavy odds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was the position when the London Irish, under cover of darkness, went forward to take over from the Reconnaissance Regiment. The Germans, by sheer weight of numbers in men, tanks, and guns, had succeeded in pushing the forward troops of the 1st Division back a couple of miles, but they had failed in their main object, which was to isolate and then destroy our forces in the Campoleone area on the road north to Albano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aprilia stood on rising ground a little to the south-west of Carroceto and completely dominated the surrounding country. It was composed of modern houses of light construction, part of a \u201cgarden city\u201d and with a large factory building, a school, and a church of solid construction. The \u201cFactory\u201d was such a prominent and favourite target for German artillery that the policy was followed that no troops should be in it but that it should be held from positions astride to east, north, and west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D Company dug in near a road junction about half a mile to the north of Aprilia and along a spur, to link up with a Guards battalion on the left flank. Deep wadis or ditches ran almost parallel on either side, and these had constantly to be patrolled day and night. B Company was on the right of Aprilia, from a road bridge across the Fosso Della Ficoccia to a road junction on the fringe of the \u201cgarden city\u201d. C Company was directly south, between D and B Companies, also at a road junction, and they had to be prepared to support either or both of the other companies. A Company was placed to guard the left flank and to link up by strong patrols along the west side of the \u201cFactory\u201d area. Four anti-tank guns were sited to cover the approaches to D and B Companies from the north. There were also Vickers guns from the Carrier Platoon and mortars in support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Battalion headquarters was established in a house to the rear of C Company, with the carriers in reserve. Here the intelligence section, under Captain Mace, had an observation-post on the upper floor and from it constant watch was kept on suspected enemy positions and movements, and also on gun flashes. The Germans, of course, were not backward in this respect too, and though they did not at first suspect that the house was being used in daytime, it was unsafe and unwise to appear. For that reason, the steps outside the building leading to the upper floors could not be used in daylight, and the intelligence staff sent messages to the Commanding Officer below by telephone. B Echelon was in the rear near Anzio, and it was necessary to build up stocks of ammunition and other needs for several days in readiness for the heavy attacks which the enemy were expected to resume in force at any moment. Supplies had to be sent forward mostly at night, as the main road north was constantly being shelled. A particularly unpleasant spot was a fly-over bridge which the enemy had been prevented from destroying. The bridge was shelled day and night, and this made the job of the company quartermaster sergeants a tricky one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first night in Aprilia was ominously quiet. Outposts were fully manned, patrols were sent out, and everyone was on the alert. From the forward positions signal linemen worked in the utter gloom, laying a network of wires to battalion headquarters. The next day also was quiet, and enabled minor adjustments to, be made in the general defensive lay-out and to strengthen the company positions. The weather was bad, with a great deal of rain which flooded the irrigation ditches and the trenches. The whole battalion area was extremely flat, and as the Germans could see everything from their observation-posts in the hills to the north, no movement was possible by day except by single individuals making use of the wadis and ditches. The second day passed without any great alarm, and mines and wire were laid as part of the defence scheme. Hitherto, the beachhead forces had been advancing and so the supply of defence stores was meagre, but the best was done with a limited supply. During the nights of February 5-6 and February 6-7, patrols had brushes with enemy patrols, but it was obvious that the general and comparative quietness was only an enforced pause while the enemy completed his preparations for the next attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after two o\u2019clock on the morning of February 7 a message was received from Brigade stating that the Germans were reliably expected to make a major effort at 0400 hours. The London Irish stood by with fixed bayonets but, apart from attempted infiltration by strong German patrols between the company positions and the 10th Royal Berkshires on the right flank, nothing serious developed. These movements by the enemy were dealt with without much difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then shelling increased and enemy aircraft made several strafing raids on the \u201cFactory\u201d area. Reports continued to come in of increasing concentrations of infantry and tanks in areas off the main road two, or three miles to the north. It indicated that perhaps the Germans intended to stage a \u201cbreak-through\u201d along the road leading south to the sea. In their path were the London Irish positions at Aprilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after 0500 hours, under cover of smoke and heavy artillery fire, the Germans attacked. D Company got the first onslaught, and then B Company. Simultaneously the Royal Berkshires on the right and the Guards on the left were also attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first the attacks were made by infantry only and they made no progress. The defenders fought grimly at close quarters with rifles, bayonets, grenades, and automatics. The attacks were kept up at intervals throughout the day, the enemy probing and testing various points in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few tanks began to appear, and by the evening D Company\u2019s situation had become precarious. No touch was possible with the Guards on their left in daylight, and evening patrols were unable to make contact anywhere near the areas where the Guards were last known to be. It appeared that the Germans had penetrated forward and covered all approaches. In addition, enemy machine guns had been lodged in a cemetery opposite B Company, and from the shelter of the cemetery walls fire was brought down on the eastern flank of D Company. It became obvious to the Commanding Officer that the Germans were in a good position after dark to cut off D<\/p>\n\n\n\n Company completely without the rest of the battalion being able to do anything very effective to prevent him. Permission was asked to withdraw D Company slightly to conform more solidly to the localities held by A and B Companies, but this was refused. The policy was that no ground whatsoever should voluntarily be given up. That was the order throughout the beachhead forces, who thus stood in comparatively small numbers with their backs to the sea and a powerful enemy ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Casualties had been mounting steadily during all the attacks, and the troops had been able to have little sleep since landing and were getting tired. However, they were confident of their ability to fight back and keep the enemy off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the night of February 7-8 the Germans kept up the pressure both on the flanks of the 1st Division\u2019s salient and on the centre. On the left they succeeded in surrounding positions held by the North Staffordshires, and in spite of vigorous resistance were slowly gaining possession of the tactically important Point 80 on the Buonriposa Ridge, west of Aprilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the darkness they made small penetrations into, the \u201cFactory\u201d area, though no direct attack was made on D Company that night. The utmost vigilance was needed to distinguish friend from foe, and at times the fighting was most confused. Corporal Matthews, mechanical transport corporal of A Company, took a fifteen-hundredweight truck loaded with food and ammunition to A Company headquarters. With him as escort was a member of the Intelligence section. Nearing his destination, he stopped to check the route with the dim figure of a sentry standing in the shelter of a near-by house. Corporal Matthews strolled across, unarmed, to speak to the sentry, and to his astonishment found himself addressing a fully armed German. With admirable self-possession, the corporal knocked the sentry down with his fist and the Intelligence-section escort despatched him with his pistol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One party of Germans penetrated in the darkness as far as the London Irish mortars, one detachment of which, under Corporal E Allen, tackled them with rifles and grenades. Corporal Allen coolly propped his mortar almost vertically on ammunition boxes and fired bombs with considerable accuracy, using the primary charges only. This was an operation of extreme hazard to himself, but it succeeded and wrought great damage to the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heavy shelling and small infantry attacks supported by tanks gave the enemy one or two small local advantages on the 8th, and though there were groups of Germans in the \u201cFactory\u201d area, the London Irish still controlled the approaches from the north and the lateral road leading eastwards. But the situation westwards on Buonriposa Ridge was more obscure than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At ten o\u2019clock that night the Commanding Officer visited the forward companies and found their positions still intact though their numbers reduced by casualties, and the men very tired. A little later D Company reported that their forward platoon locality was empty. There had been no sound of firing, and the Company Commander could only conclude that they had collapsed through utter exhaustion and had been surrounded and captured before they could put up any resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That unpleasant discovery made the situation of the rest of the company more difficult, and permission was again requested to withdraw slightly to positions where mutual support could be given. But again, came the order that no ground was to be given up, and the company remained at their precarious posts. Attempts to get through to D Company by patrols from the road junction held by B Company to their right were prevented by strong forces of the enemy who had infiltrated between the two companies. In the meantime, B Company were being worried by constant small attacks and were unable to keep contact with the Royal Berkshires to the right. The main source of worry in that sector was the Fosso Della Ficoccia, which the London Irish had been unable to close with mines and into the two branches of which the Germans had penetrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To sum up this day, the 1st British Infantry Division\u2019s account of the Anzio operations records:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThroughout February 8 hard and bitter fighting for the defence of Carroceto continued. Enemy pressure was extremely violent all along the front. The enemy, newly identified as the 1st Parachute Corps, using battle groups in regimental strength, had at its disposal elements of four different divisions with a total of six regiments. In addition, the attack was supported by a large number of tanks and a heavier weight of artillery than had ever before been experienced in the bridgehead. The positions held by the Royal Berkshires and the London Irish astride the lateral road and in the \u2018Factory\u2019 area itself were constantly harried all day by the enemy, and especially by enemy tanks. Frequent counterattacks were put in wherever the enemy looked like gaining ground, and although small parties did succeed in reaching the \u2018Factory\u2019 and our positions along the lateral road, no significant losses were reported in this sector. The enemy\u2019s attempts to take the \u2018Factory\u2019 during February 7 and 8 had not succeeded in the face of 168 Brigade\u2019s constant and stubborn resistance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was little rest for the defenders on the night of February 8-9. They were by then worn out by two days of very hard, bitter, and almost continuous fighting. At 0130 hours on the 9th the two remaining platoons of D Company were heavily attacked. There came a brief message that the fight was on and then radio and telephone communications ceased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Germans came in at close quarters from all sides, and the platoons were cut off from the rest of the battalion. That possibility had all along been feared, but permission to withdraw the company to sounder positions had been refused. Attempts to make contact with them made no headway, even a troop of Shermans could not face the short-range fire of enemy anti-tank guns. German machine-gun fire covered all the approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attacks developed to the right and left of the London Irish front, and it was impossible to find any troops to launch an attack strong enough to break through to D Company. At daylight, still with no message from them, it was concluded that they had been completely overrun and that those who had survived the frenzied onslaughts of the enemy had been taken prisoners. It was later learned that the survivors were overwhelmed after a desperate fight in which their Company Commander and last remaining officer, Major P McMahon Mahon, was captured. Later he was severely wounded by our own gunfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the light there was no abatement in the German pressure, in fact the attacks on all sectors were redoubled in intensity and fury. The enemy put new, fresh troops into the fray, well supported by tanks and a great preponderance of artillery. Occasionally they launched explosive charges in miniature tracked vehicles operated by remote control, but they proved to be ineffective owing to the difficulties of the ground and the accurate fire from the defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The overwhelming of D Company allowed the enemy a means of entry into Aprilia of which he made full use to support the continuous attacks he now made on B Company and the Royal Berkshires. By about 0645 hours B Company\u2019s plight was critical, as the left forward company of the Royal Berkshires had been subdued after a gallant fight. Two German battalions, with numerous tanks, attacked in this sector and in spite of all B Company could do, and with its Commander, Captain DA Hardy, badly wounded and many other casualties among all ranks, they were forced back. Drastic action was now called for, and the Commanding Officer took the risk of moving A Company complete from the left flank, where things appeared to be quiet, and putting in a counterattack to regain the lost ground. Little time was available if there was to be any hope of success, and after a hurried arrangement for artillery support, A Company launched their attack. The Germans had prepared for a counterattack and they resisted strongly. With great determination A Company managed to make some progress and reached a line along an irrigation ditch a little to the south of B Company\u2019s lost positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That period will long be remembered by those who survived. There were many individual acts of gallantry by all ranks. The Germans smashed their way into one house but were driven out by fire from a Piat gun fired by Lieutenant RM Haigh, and Rifleman Stiles, of the signals section. The officer was wounded, but he continued to direct the defence of the position, which was retrieved. At another point the paratroopers got within fifty yards of the London Irish defences and obtained a foothold in a gully which gave them temporary cover. From there they fired a machine-gun at close range, but they were put to flight after suffering casualties by Major Brooks, who fired a Bren from the upper windows of his headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All the officers of A Company were wounded, except Captain Ray Mullins. The enemy penetrated into the company positions and Captain Mullins hastily reorganised the survivors of the company and drove the Germans out. He afterwards led an assault with grenades on the Germans, who had the headquarters of B Company almost within their grasp. The enemy were again driven off with heavy losses and thirty-three prisoners were taken. During these exchanges\u2019 Captain Mullins was wounded. At battalion headquarters Lieut-Colonel Good and his staff were keeping in touch with the confused battle as the enemy switched their attacks in order to find a weak spot. From B Company came this message by wireless: \u201cI am, doing all I can but it looks as if this is our last fight.\u201d But A Company\u2019s counterattack eased the situation, and later the officer wirelessed: \u201cI must apologise for my earlier despondency\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although they had achieved some success the enemy had been thwarted in their main design-to break through to the sea. The magnificent fight put up round the vital road leading to the south had completely foiled the plan, and there came a lull in the fighting while the enemy recovered from the severe mauling he had received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish had suffered the loss of D Company; both A and B Companies had each been reduced to less than one-third strength; while C Company had also suffered losses, though not so grievously as the others. Three Company Commanders had become casualties, as well as a high proportion of platoon officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was decided, therefore, to group A and B Companies together under C Company, and a weak company from the London Scottish came under command of the London Irish Rifles and took over positions on C Company\u2019s right. The main \u201cFactory\u201d building had been given up, and the remnants of the battalion grouped themselves round the road junction south of Aprilia near C Company\u2019s original posts. Two composite platoons from Headquarters Company and B Echelon were formed to assist battalion headquarters in holding a central group of houses along the road leading east towards the Fossa Della Ficoccia, which was covered by the London Scottish company. The latter linked up with all that was left of the Royal Berkshire battalion, who in fierce fighting had lost even more heavily than the London Irish. They, too, had fought manfully, and the period had been most exhausting to both battalions. Later, Lieut-Colonel Baird recorded his tribute to the \u201cmagnificent help, encouragement, and inter-regimental comradeship that existed with our friends of the London Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enemy had taken over Buonriposa Ridge to the west, and two counter-attacks with the help of tanks had been only partly successful. The swampy, broken country had restricted the use of tanks, which were mainly directed on to the road and to house fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the evening of the 9th and 10th, the 1st British Infantry Division, taking advantage of the lull, rearranged its order of battle. 168 Brigade was south of the lateral road running east from the \u201cFactory\u201d area, the 24th Guards Brigade still covered the hamlet of Carroceto in the centre, and farther to the left the 3rd Infantry Brigade held positions along a wadi south of the Buonriposa Ridge. While these changes were in progress and the troops were digging in and wiring, the enemy resumed the offensive in the area held by the Guards west of the London Irish. The continued defence of the Carroceto sector by the Guards was proving an obstacle to the German plans. Although tired and weakened the Guards stood firmly, but a battalion of Scots Guards in danger of being surrounded withdrew from the battered hamlet into the perimeter defences formed by the Grenadiers across the main road below Carroceto. For his valiant defence of Carroceto Major Sydney, of the Grenadiers, was later awarded the VC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite their heavy losses the Germans occupied the railway station and consolidated in the area. It seemed that with the capture of Carroceto, after three days of desperate fighting, the first phase of the enemy\u2019s offensive was nearing its end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this vital period large-scale support by the British and American Air Forces came as a great relief to the beachhead garrison and gave them fresh heart. An attack by heavy bombers on the forming-up areas of the enemy was extremely accurate and effective. The bomb line appeared to be only five hundred yards in front of the Allied troops, and at battalion headquarters of the London Irish the ground shook violently throughout the attack. So tired were some of the officers and men that many of them continued to sleep in spite of the shattering noise and the trembling of the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the night of February 10-11, 168 Brigade went out of the line for a much-needed rest. Only one company of new men was sent to relieve the London Irish, yet it was stronger in numbers than the members of the battalion left in the line after the battles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the next few days, the London Irish rested and reorganised. Reinforcements equivalent to one and a half companies arrived, but they were mostly new and inexperienced troops and included only a few old members of the battalion who had recovered from earlier wounds. The most welcome among them were Major Cantopher, who had been ill, and Captain JR Strick, fortunately well again after his wounds received at the Garigliano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though at rest, the area occupied by the London Irish was well within range of the enemy guns and it became very uncomfortable at times. German aircraft developed a nasty habit nightly of spraying the ground with butterfly bombs, together with a few high explosives. Unluckily these raids caused a number of casualties by direct hits on the slit trenches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On February 15 General Alexander, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in Italy, visited the battalion. An old friend of the London Irish from pre-war days, he said how glad he was to be able to congratulate them on their fine fight during a very critical period of the battle. This visit by the Commander-in-Chief and the days of rest greatly cheered the battalion and helped it to be ready for the next phase of the battle. In the meantime, the remainder of the 56th (London) Division had arrived in the beachhead, and they went into line on the extreme westerly flank from the sea along the Fosso Della Moletta, to below Buonriposa Ridge. 168 Brigade then passed from the command of the 1st Division and became reserve brigade in the 56th Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the London Irish were resting, counterattacks were put in by British-American forces to drive the enemy from Buonriposa Ridge and also from the \u201cFactory\u201d and Carroceto. The \u201cFactory\u201d buildings and Carroceto were reduced to ruins by the heavy artillery and bombing raids of the Allies, but the enemy could not be dislodged though the \u201cFactory\u201d changed hands twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By February 15 five days had elapsed since the last German attack, and while it enabled him to reassemble his forces and prepare a firm base for the next stage, it allowed the Allied forces in the beachhead to be strengthened and regrouped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reports came of constant traffic on the roads and railways into Rome and on the roads leading south and south-east into Albano and Genzano. Much activity was observed in the German rear areas, and it was safely deduced that their build-up for the next phase of the all-out offensive ordered by the Fuehrer was soon to come. According to prisoners a final crushing blow was planned to split the beachhead in half and to break through to the sea at Nettuno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 0630 hours on February 16 the second onslaught began, and the main axis of the German attack was down the Anzio-Albano road, with diversionary thrusts on the flanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan of attack was in two phases. The first, a thrust by three divisions with two more to exploit whatever success had been achieved. To support the projected \u201cbreak-through,\u201d twenty Tigers, eighty Panthers, and a variety of assault guns and self-propelled howitzers were scheduled to be in attendance, according to plans subsequently found on an officer prisoner!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enemy\u2019s objectives were the Fosso di Carrocetello, about two thousand yards down the road south towards Anzio; next, the lateral road farther south on which had been established the Corps defence-line; the third bound was the Bosco di Padiglione, the stretch of country east of the main road and which would lead to Nettuno and thus sever the Allied forces in two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first round in this decisive battle went to the enemy. After hard and bitter fighting, and with the help of twenty to thirty tanks, they made some progress against the 45th US Division who covered the main axis of advance. To the west 167 Brigade suffered some slight penetration from German attacks launched from Buonriposa Ridge, but further penetration southwards was prevented. The thrusts continued throughout the day, and as they gained in weight the respite given to the 1st Division and to 168 Brigade was ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 0700 hours on February 17 the London Irish and the rest of the brigade moved forward into the sector held by its parent division. The battalion occupied a reserve position, this time west of the Anzio-Albano road in flat country below Buonriposa Ridge. In a direct line they were less than four miles from the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flatness of the country was deceiving. It was interspersed with wadis and ditches which, though invisible from more than a few yards away, were very deep and steep, with a mass of tangled undergrowth at the bottom. That they were there had been obvious from the map, but that they were such considerable obstacles to movement or helped to conceal movement was not realised until later. German tactics showed that they knew the ground well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish had hardly reached their new ground than orders came to move immediately to the Buonriposa Ridge area and relieve the 7th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who were reported to be cut off and surrounded. This entailed a daylight advance, and a circuitous route was chosen in order to get reasonable cover along the wadis. The advance began at midday and at first only desultory shelling was encountered. It progressed well until in the wadis the going became heavy and slow. There were also a multitude of wide ditches which were unexpected because they did not appear on the maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the leading troops emerged from the protection of the wadis they came under savage artillery, mortar, and small-arms fire, and were unable to make further progress. Casualties among officers and non-commissioned officers were heavy, and that led to some disorganisation. Since January there had been an eighty per cent. change in the personnel of the battalion owing to the need to replace losses among officers and men. Few of the new arrivals had seen each other before joining the battalion and had, in fact, been hustled into battle almost before knowing the names of their section or platoon leaders. So, when more casualties among the officers and non-commissioned officers occurred, it was a more serious matter than would normally have been the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation was reported to Brigade, but most insistent orders came that the battalion must find and bring out the remnants of the Oxford and Bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strong patrols went out at night, but every effort to find the Oxford and Bucks in their reported position failed. The enemy, too, was active, but there was no major clash and in the morning the position was unchanged. The Commanding Officer visited the companies and found most of them very exhausted from a very gruelling twenty-four hours in wet weather. The new men, particularly, had not had an opportunity to get hardened or tuned up and had not thrown off the \u201csoftness\u201d occasioned by long journeys and many days spent in reinforcement and transit camps. In addition, some of the old members of the battalion had recently come from convalescent centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On February 18, further efforts were made to trace the Oxford and Bucks with no result, except to bring more casualties to the battalion. That night, Lieut-Colonel Good, exhausted by many days and nights with no sleep and little rest, was ordered by Brigadier Davidson to have a respite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The position at that time was that in accordance with a plan prepared by the Brigadier, the London Irish, despite heavy shell and mortar fire, had got up forward as far as it possibly could. A strong, powerful blow would be needed to dislodge the Germans from their positions on the higher ground ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owing to the shelling, battalion headquarters had lost touch with the companies. Tactical Headquarters, commanded by Captain TJ Sweeney, the Adjutant, and accompanied by Captain A Mace and about ten personnel of the carrier platoon acting as headquarters defence, struggled all that night to reach the companies. They finally joined them at first light and found them sheltering in a wadi. Everyone was extremely weary and all further attack was out of the question for the moment. A Company now numbered about thirty-five men and C Company about the same. About an hour later the battalion suffered another severe blow. A stray shell landed near the resting men and Captain JR Strick<\/a>, a very popular and efficient officer who had been with the London Irish from pre-war Territorial days, and CSM Flavelle<\/a>, were killed and Major Brooks severely wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To this depressing scene arrived Major Stopford, who as Second-in-Command had assumed control of the battalion in the enforced absence of Lieut-Colonel Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a period, there was now so little sleep that all days seemed to run into each other, which has made the subsequent recording of successive happenings very difficult. It was ascertained that battalion headquarters of the Oxford and Bucks were still holding out in a culvert about four hundred yards from the London Irish wadi. Part of one of their companies, also, was holding out in a ditch on their right. The Germans were very close, almost all round, and they frequently sent over showers of grenades which were unpleasant but not very effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere along the beachhead line other reserve troops were brought up to make, if necessary, a final stop-line through which the enemy must not pass. If they did it would mean complete and utter disaster to the whole Anzio venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the London Irish were still trying to extricate their comrades of the Oxford and Bucks the enemy resumed their main attacks down the Anzio-Carroceto road. They reached a road junction one and a half miles south of the posts held earlier by B Company in the \u201cFactory Battle\u201d and started to fan out east and west of the main road. They made a heavy attack on the Allied troops on the right of the London Irish. Their effort was repulsed, but on the other side of the Anzio-Carroceto road they made some gains southwards by pushing in fresh reserves regardless of the heavy cost. Sixty tanks were used in this sector by the enemy, and two Tigers penetrated to a point on the road about half a mile behind the London Irish positions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, they were well away on the flank, with impassable country in between! By nightfall on the 18th the battle had subsided, with the enemy holding a dangerous bulge in the apex of the beachhead. A counterattack by American medium tanks failed to restore the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enemy\u2019s next move was rather an obvious one. It was to seize control of the fly-over bridge on the Anzio road and the lateral road running east and west from it. That move would mean a direct attack on the Corps defence-line, behind which the stop line manned by composite companies of the RASC, the REME, and the North Staffordshires, with the 3rd Infantry Brigade in reserve at the B Echelon areas. So crucial was the manpower position in the beachhead that fitters, mechanics, electricians, drivers, and transport maintenance men were thus called into the line. They dropped their spanners and seized their rifles. Even the staff of a mobile laundry had to prepare for action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this critical period Major-General Penney, commanding the 1st British Infantry Division, was slightly wounded by a shell near his caravan, and Major-General GWR Templer, DSO, OBE, Commander of the 56th (London) Division, took over command of the entire British sector. The next phase of the German offensive was a thrust by the LEHR Regiment 309, a crack demonstration unit which had been rushed down from Doberitz in northern Germany. The attack was against the Loyals in the east section of the lateral road. Stout-hearted resistance and judicious counterattacks threw the enemy back. Two hours later, after large bodies of German men and tanks had been observed and engaged by the gunners of the 1st Division, the enemy renewed their attacks on the Loyals. At one time hand-to-hand fighting took place in the darkness on the fly-over bridge but no ground was ceded. For over two days the fight for the bridge and the road to the cast went on, but the German effort foundered on the resolute defence of the 2nd Infantry Brigade. In the struggle at the bridge two hundred prisoners were taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By February 20, the back of the German offensive in the open country east of the Anzio road appeared to be broken. A breach had been made in the outer defences, but the enemy did not break through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this vital struggle had been going on, the London Irish and the rest of the 56th Division to the west of the beachhead had been in constant touch with the enemy, who by a process of infiltration in force sought to harry the defenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the protection of the wadis the ground was under German observation, and any movement in daylight drew machine-gun and mortar fire, as well as artillery bursts. There was consequently a constant trickle of casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conditions were made more difficult by the fact that direct communication with brigade headquarters was impossible, except by runner. In very heavy going, and scrambling through bushes and across waterfalls, it took about two hours to get back to brigade. A telephone line had been laid but it proved to be useless. The signalmen going back along it found seventeen breaks due to the heavy shelling. There was contact by wireless, but security needs made it unwise to give a true picture of the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the struggle fine work was done by brigade and alsoby the London Irish signals section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At night the Germans penetrated both sides of the Irish companies and there were frequent clashes in the darkness between patrols. The result of these moves by the enemy was to break off the slender contact between the London Irish and their comrades in the Oxford and Bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A plan was devised at brigade to enable the survivors of the Oxford and Bucks to be withdrawn, and this involved an attack by the London Irish on the end of a wadi held by paratroopers. They were a powerful, well-armed group, and they barred the effective rescue of the Light Infantrymen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish by this time had again become desperately short of officers and experienced non-commissioned officers. Captain Alan Mace, the Intelligence Officer, took command of A Company in place of Major Cantopher, who was wounded. Among those left were Captain Sweeney, the Adjutant, and Captain Crozier, who had been in command of the brigade defence platoon and now had C Company, which had been reduced to between thirty and forty men. Lieutenant Little, of the Mortars, was busy extricating his carriers from a series of bogs, while Captain Miller, the signals officer, was in charge of a section at battalion headquarters slightly to the rear. At B Echelon, besides a depleted Quartermaster\u2019s staff, there were Major H Lofting, who had only recently come out of hospital and had hardly recovered from wounds received at the Garigliano and was not at all fit, and a new officer, Lieutenant Birkenhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain Crozier and his men were ordered to clear the Germans from the wadi by means of a left hook and to come on to the wadi from that side. They set out, and none of them was seen again. Years later it became known that the company overreached the wadi and ran slap into the main German positions. Many, including Captain Crozier<\/a>, were killed and many wounded and captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That night a reinforcement company under Major P Corbally arrived with two or three other officers. They were all from a variety of regiments, and like previous new arrivals they had had no chance of being gradually broken into battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Germans now tried a new plan to break up the beachhead. It seemed that they had abandoned all hope of a break-through in force as being too costly. With fresh troops sent from Germany they tried to extend their salient to the west of the Anzio, road by insidiously gnawing off small areas of ground. The broken country held by the 56th (London) Division and the 45th and 1st American Armoured Divisions offered excellent opportunities, especially against tired troops. One such attempt was made at dawn one day, when the Germans came over in parties of twenty or thirty. One group made for battalion headquarters of the London Irish, and everyone there was on the alert. They opened fire with everything, forcing the Germans to scatter. The London Irishmen followed them up in a close encounter which finally routed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Germans took refuge in a house, where they were shelled. Three Sherman tanks came up, and after a few rounds the enemy had had enough. Those who survived came out with their hands held high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Germans later retaliated and dropped mortar bombs into the London Irish wadi and several men were hurt. But this series of attacks petered out and a further attempt was made to extricate the Oxford and Bucks. Major Corbally and his company of new men, Y Company, tried to sweep the enemy from the wadi which still barred the way to the beleaguered men. Some progress was made, but after Major Corbally and most of his officers had been wounded the operation was called off until daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the London Irish had not finished. They were determined to get out the men of the Oxford and Bucks. One more attack was planned, this time in conjunction with the London Scottish and a troop of tanks. The London Irish were now very weak. The four rifle companies were organised into one company under Captain AF Mace, with Lieutenant Riches, Lieutenant johns, and Lieutenant Sutcliffe. The staff at headquarters, including the drivers, brought the total strength up to about another company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attack was made in two stages. Lieutenant Sutcliffe with a small platoon captured a building known as \u201cOP House\u201d, on the edge of the wadi. Lieutenant johns with another platoon passed through and with the assistance of a tank, mopped up the paratroopers, and the Oxford and Bucks were safely extricated. The action was completed with only a few casualties, one of them being Lieutenant Johns, who was wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At night there was a good deal of mortar fire and shelling, and the Germans resumed their infiltrations. The natural defences or obstacles in the wadi were so thick that without a full-scale action it was impossible to eject them. An attack was made by the enemy on \u201cOP House\u201d and Lieutenant Sutcliffe and his party disappeared. It was presumed they had been either killed or captured. The Germans set up a Spandau post in the house, and a section under Corporal C Hill, crossing four hundred and fifty yards of open ground, put in a spirited counterattack. Despite heavy fire the building was regained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shelling continued and there were further losses. Captain Mace and RSM J Cairns were wounded, and Major H Lofting went forward and took over the London Irish company, which yet again was reinforced by young, inexperienced soldiers. Luckily there came a short respite and the London Irish were withdrawn from the line, only to be sent to new positions elsewhere in the Corps perimeter. While the changeover was being made a curious incident occurred at a house which the London Irish had been using as a forward casualty station, and up to then its Red Cross had been observed by the Germans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the previous day a section of Germans under a non-commissioned officer had tried to take possession of the regimental aid-post. The Medical Officer of the Royal Berkshires, a Czech, happened to be visiting the centre and with great courage he lectured the Germans in their own language on the contents of the Geneva Convention. He impressed the Germans so much by his harangue that the non-commissioned officer apologised and withdrew with his men. But the enemy tried again to take over the building. With a flourish of rifles and automatics another German non-commissioned officer announced that all the British personnel would be taken prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were a number of London Irish and Royal Berkshire casualties in the regimental aid-post, and soon the Germans began to bring in their wounded. They reached an agreement with the medical orderlies that the seriously wounded on each side should be evacuated to their respective lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An ambulance arrived, and some of the British wounded were taken away, but the enemy found that their track back was impassable. They were thus in a predicament. The opportunity was too good to be missed, and Major H Lofting, with a section of men, rushed the German sentries and not only rescued our own wounded but captured a number of Germans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, in two days, the regimental aid-post was twice captured and retaken, once by the tongue and once by the sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their new positions the London Irish once again were formed into two companies, one under Major Lofting, and the other under Lieutenant L Rue with Lieutenant Toone. Intermittent shelling continued, and then on March 2 they were ordered into a counterattack to recapture a position of the Royal Fusiliers which had been overrun by the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D Company, with Lieutenant Rue, went in without preliminary artillery support. They attacked across open, flat country with little cover and overlooked by the Germans. Their effort was a gallant one, made by new men, but in the old London Irish tradition. The Germans were more numerous than had been thought, and they brought fire down from self-propelled high-velocity guns. The attackers did not falter. They struggled gamely on, but darkness came and further advance was impossible. By that time Lieutenant Rue and Lieutenant Toone had been wounded; the latter died later, leaving CSM F Kelly in charge of the company, now reduced to only fifteen men. Kelly was also hit, and Captain Bonham-Carter, who had returned to the battalion on recovering from earlier wounds, volunteered to take over the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He resumed the attack at dawn on March 3 with a company of about twenty sound men. A troop of Commandos gave him supporting fire as he led the attack across the open country in an effort first to silence three Spandau posts. The enemy machine guns trained on Captain Bonham-Carter as he rushed forward. He was hit in the thigh and fell. He got up immediately and continued to lead the attack. He silenced the first Spandau post himself with a Tommy gun and then fell mortally wounded across it. His dash and courage inspired the others and they finished off the German platoon in no time. Out of seventy-five officers and men who went into these two attacks, about fifteen were killed and forty wounded. Captain Bonham-Carter<\/a> was carried back to the advanced dressing-station, where later he died. In his death the London Irish lost a very gallant officer and a fine man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only had the company attained their objective but they killed about thirty Germans, including the Company Commander, took thirty prisoners, and released fifteen men of the Royal Fusiliers whom the Germans had caught in their first attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D Company\u2019s courageous rally undoubtedly prevented the enemy from gaining the lateral road which at that time and for some time afterwards was the line of the British forward defence and thus had a great bearing in keeping the beachhead intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the battle of March 2-3, Lieut.-Colonel H Baucher arrived and took over command of the battalion from Major Viscount Stopford, who despite ill-health and the terrific strain of the Anzio battles had done yeoman service, first as Second-in Command, and then as Acting Commanding Officer. Owing to illness he was afterwards invalided from the battalion, to the great regret of the few remaining original members of the London Irish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from desultory shelling no further action was fought. The battalion remained in the line for another week, and two Royal Engineer companies came under command, helping to strengthen its ranks. The 5th Division landed in the beachhead and the 56th Division was withdrawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By that time there was no doubt that though the enemy would make further attacks the beachhead was secure, thanks to the long endurance and the firm and spirited resistance of the beachhead forces. The Brigadier told the London Irish when he visited them before they left Anzio that a critical situation had been saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the arduous days all ranks at B Echelon worked with wonderful spirit in getting vital supplies up to the front line. Some vehicles were bogged, others crashed, yet food, water, and ammunition got through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cook of Headquarters Company, Corporal WJ Harris, worked wonders with a large metal water-tub which he converted into an oven. As the result of an international but unofficial barter he acquired supplies of yeast, and to the delight and satisfaction of the men, who had lived on \u201chard tack\u201d for days, he produced loaves of crisp white bread and tasty cakes. They were highly appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the latter part of the Anzio struggle the following immediate awards for gallantry were made to the London Irish:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bar to MC.<\/strong> MC.<\/strong> DCM.<\/strong> MM.<\/strong> On March 11 the London Irish sailed for Pozzuoli, near Naples. During nearly six weeks at Anzio its casualties in killed, wounded, and missing were: thirty-two officers, five hundred and fifty other ranks. Only twelve officers and three hundred other ranks embarked, and many of these had just returned to the battalion from hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On St Patrick\u2019s Day, 1944, the 1st Battalion were billeted at Sarno, between Naples and Salerno and near the foot of Mount Vesuvius. Through thoughtless staff-work on a high level they were ordered to move that day to billets farther south. A most successful but delayed observance of the festival was held, during which Major-General GWR Templer, DSO, OBE, Commander of the 56th (London) Division, and Brigadier KC Davidson, of 168 Brigade, visited the battalion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 29 the London Irish embarked at Taranto for Port Said, and in Egypt they went into camp at Tahag, a dreary desert waste near Quassassin, north of Cairo. That was their first real rest since before the invasion of Sicily nearly a year before. During their stay there the London Irish pipes and drums, and also a detachment of some of the survivors of the old battalion, represented it at a St George\u2019s Day service in memory of the fallen and to commemorate the first anniversary of the 56th (London) Division going into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Major-General Templer, who later was promoted Lieut.-General and after the war appointed Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff under Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery, took the salute in a stirring march-past. Among those who attended the service and parade was Colonel JRJ Macnamara, MP, former Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, who visited the London Irish later, met some of his old comrades, and learned of the passing of many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relaxation for the battalion was short lived, because a company from each of the three battalions in the brigade was sent to Burg El Arab, twenty-five miles from Alexandria, to deal with a mutiny among Greek troops quartered there. This was accomplished without much trouble, and eventually the London Irish resumed the work of re-equipping and training at Sidi Bishr, a few miles east of Alexandria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reinforcements arrived, including many officers and men who had recovered from wounds received in Italy, but most of the new personnel was from anti-aircraft regiments whose period of usefulness in the Canal Zone was deemed to have ended with the war being removed so far away, and who had been disbanded and sent to strengthen the infantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four rifle companies were again formed, and Major TJ Sweeney, who had served as Adjutant for over a year, took over D Company and was succeeded by Captain Alan Mace MC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much regret was felt when orders came to the brigade for the disbandment of the 10th Royal Berkshires with whom the London Irish had served since the formation of the brigade in England. The greatest friendship existed between the two battalions, and many officers and men of the Royal Berkshires volunteered for transfer to the London Irish, including Major DAT Brett, who later became Second-in-Command of the battalion, Captain R Hedger MC, and Captain AD Blake, each of whom commanded companies in subsequent fighting. A battalion of the Welch Regiment came into 168 Brigade in place of the Royal Berkshires. The battalions were now Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, a new form of international brigade!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Regimental band, pipes, bugles, and drums, under the direction of Pipe-Major Franklin and Bugle-Major Taylor, continued to make an excellent reputation, both in Cairo, where it played at several important ceremonial parades, including that for the King\u2019s Birthday and on Empire Day, and at Alexandria, where it played at hospitals, the racecourse, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, General Sir Bernard Paget, visited the battalion during an arduous training period at Burg El Arab, and expressed himself very well pleased with all he saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On July 12, 1944, the 1st Battalion embarked once more for Italy, and on the voyage Major HCS Lofting, the very popular OC of B Company, who had been with the battalion since Territorial days, and had been wounded twice, died and was buried at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taranto was a pleasant sight when the 1st Battalion reached it after an uneventful voyage in mid-July 1944. The harbour was full of ships flying the White Ensign, while masts and rusty hulks stood forlornly in the water, grim relics of that navy of which Mussolini was wont to boast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A strangely familiar sight met the London Irish as they lined the sides of their ship waiting to disembark. They saw men already ashore wearing the caubeen and hackle. They were men of the 2nd Battalion, waiting to return to Egypt. There was only time for a wave and a shout, and the ways of the two battalions parted for many long weary, bitter months, until they took part in the last great race through northern Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The transit camp at Taranto was five miles away, a hot, dusty, thirsty march to men in full kit on a summer\u2019s day. The camp was an unpleasant place, dirty as only a transit camp can be, with far too few tents, little water, and bad sanitation. However, most of the London Irish were seasoned campaigners and did not worry over-much, except to request more and more tents, swill bins, and all those little necessaries which make or mar a camp. The battalion could well claim that it was a cleaner, sweeter place when they left it than it was when they arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The march up was trying enough, but it was particularly galling to the London Irish to find out that they were to be the last of the seventeen thousand men who were to be fed that day at one vast cookhouse. By the time their turn approached the cooks were exhausted, the Italian servers had gone borne, and the timetable had slipped badly. The London Irish waited with patience until like the cooks\u2019 it was exhausted, and with a creditable imitation of Nazi technique, and led by the Commanding Officer, they took over the cookhouse for its own good. The tea, at least, was hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A week later, on July 25, the battalion moved by train to Tivoli, near Rome, a typical war journey in slowly moving cattle-trucks. Salerno and Naples were left behind, and the veterans of the battalion were interested to know that once more they would cross the Garigliano. The crossing this time was by train and not in assault boats. Unfortunately, night fell before the river was reached, and the train\u2019s speed increased to fifteen miles per hour, so that little or nothing could be seen. South of Rome the battalion transferred to troop-carrying vehicles, and as the journey proceeded a sense of the familiar came to officers and men as they passed Cisterna, a wreck of a town, and entered the Alban Hills, at which some of them had gazed so often and with such venom when they were straining to hold the Anzio bridgehead. And so they reached the rolling farmland near Tivoli, with Rome not far away, and the smelly but invigorating sulphur baths close by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rome enchanted everyone; if not for its ancient culture, then for its NAAFIs, its cinemas, theatres, and opera. All tastes were satisfied. The band put up a great show in Mussolini\u2019s old haunt, the Piazza Venezia, and impressed both the Romans and our warm friends, the Americans, alike. A visit to St Peter\u2019s and an audience granted by His Holiness the Pope was an historic event for those of the Catholic faith. It is recorded that one enthusiastic officer, not of the London Irish, was so overwhelmed by the occasion that he called for three cheers for the Pope. They were given with considerable gusto, to the apparent gratification of His Holiness, but to the evident bewilderment of the Vatican Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While at Tivoli the 56th (London) Division was visited by HM the King, the first since he bade them God-speed on the eve of leaving England in 1942.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion once again prepared for more real work. Security was the watchword, and divisional flashes and unit numbers were removed, and the Black Cat was painted out on all vehicles and signs. Camouflage was once more the order of the day, and the battalion moved secretly by night to Perugia and the farmlands at Assisi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here they had the first hint of future plans. The Gothic Line had to be broken to enable armour to \u201cswan\u201d across the plains of Lombardy. At Tolentino the plan was disclosed. The 5th Corps, with overwhelming forces of armour, guns, and infantry, was to smash through on the Adriatic, while the 5th Army was to forge on to Bologna and beyond. \u201cFirst Stop Venice\u201d was the theme, and then Vienna. A formidable force was augmented by men of the Polish Army and by our redoubtable cousins from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spirits and hopes were high and no one guessed what a trap the plains would prove to be when finally, bloody and battered but victorious, the London Irish reached them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On August 30 the battalion moved up once again through Sassoferrato to Urbino. By that time the battle was on and was going well. The prepared defences were swept aside, and it looked very much as if the Gothic Line had been broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By September 1, the division was committed, with 168 Brigade in reserve. On September 4, the London Irish moved up, and then it became clear that all was not going as well as had been hoped. The Queen\u2019s and 167 Brigade were having trouble. Some unpleasantly high features were proving a nuisance, and the River Conca was ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For twenty-four hours, the London Irish sat in their troop-carrying vehicles, moving only six hundred yards in daylight. At nightfall they started off in a long column, and progress was slow. The London Scottish and the Irish advance party were ahead, and daylight found the convoy climbing and crawling on bad roads in hilly country with the vehicles stretching for miles, nose to tail. The battle could be heard, and it was apparent to the old stagers that the shells were not all going the one way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly and unpleasantly the column came under shellfire and everyone debussed and scattered. This was the battalion\u2019s first taste of the enemy since Anzio, and it was far from welcome because nothing could be done by them in response: the Germans were still far away. Heavier and faster came the shells and some casualties were caused, but, on the whole, the battalion was lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It became clear that there was confusion in front and there came the news that the London Scottish had been caught in their vehicles by very heavy shelling, and that Captain Harry Gallaher, Officer Commanding of the London Irish advance party, who had only recently returned to the battalion, had been wounded. The Commanding Officer and his \u201cO\u201d Group went on ahead, and the column followed, luckily without much more shelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On arriving at Morciano, the London Irish heard they were urgently needed and that the battalion was to pass over the Conca, which had already been forced, and to concentrate at Croce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All went well until the leading companies reached a crossroads below Croce. They were heavily shelled and mortared from Croce and from Gemmano, a nasty-looking hill immediately to their rear. It was realised that not only was Croce very far from being captured, but that the London Irish were completely overlooked from all sides. They dispersed widely, and eventually two companies and Tactical Headquarters worked their way past the cross-roads up a hillside which formed the ridge leading to Croce. They dug in and found themselves amongst a Royal Fusilier company who, it had been thought, were already in Croce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, battalion vehicles following up behind approached the crossroads, which afterwards became known as \u201cStonk Corner.\u201d As the leading jeep reached it, a Spandau opened up with that peculiar viciousness so well known to those who had been under its fire before. Very soon hell was let loose on \u201cStonk Corner,\u201d with eighty-eights, mortars, and the rest of the German bag of tricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The leading drivers were brave and cool, and the whole column performed the amazing feat of turning in its own length and tore back two miles or so down the road to safety. Not one man or vehicle was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orders were received from Brigade that an attack was to be put in on San Sevino cemetery and Point 168, which was five hundred yards along the ridge to the south and in the direction of Croce. The Commanding Officer, Lieut-Colonel Baucher, had just time enough to make his reconnaissance in fading light, and was forced to point out the objectives to B and D Company Commanders in light so bad that the tasks were given from the map and by the aid of a compass bearing on a burning haystack. The platoon commanders, of course, had no chance at all of seeing anything but the fire, their objectives were a matter of some hazard. It was a lamentable and noticeable feature of the conduct of the campaign at that period that time for reconnaissance was rarely given by higher authority, the mistaken impression still persisting that the Germans were on the run in spite of obvious evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D Company set off, followed by B Company. The route lay over the ridge upon which the battalion was dug in, across a valley, and up to the San Sevino Ridge. The advance of D Company began with 18 Platoon, closely followed by the Company Commander and Tactical Headquarters. Everything was unusually quiet as the company deployed in readiness for the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the stillness of the evening the surrounding countryside sprang suddenly into life. From positions very carefully concealed on their left flank, the enemy opened up machine-gun fire and pinned the entire company down. The situation was awkward, and after several fruitless attempts to go forward there was no alternative but to wait until total darkness. Supported by the gunners the company resumed its advance at 2100 hours, and when they succeeded in reaching their objective, they discovered that some of the enemy had withdrawn. As 18 Platoon in the centre got almost to the top of the ridge they were fired on heavily from a house only fifty yards away. Lieutenant M Spiller with 16 Platoon on the right made a quick appreciation of the situation and ordered two sections to attack with grenades and Bren guns. The Germans in the house were taken completely by surprise. In a few minutes the house was more or less surrounded and all exits covered. About two hundred yards away 17 Platoon were having a stiff fight with strong groups of Germans still holding out in houses on the outskirts of Croce. A fire plan was scarcely completed when the enemy counter-attacked, but thanks to the vigilance of the section commanders they were beaten back. Shortly afterwards there was a stronger attack, the enemy being obviously determined to sweep the London Irish from the ridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company fought back magnificently in the darkness, but enemy superiority in numbers and automatic weapons gradually made itself felt and the London Irish had to fall back a hundred yards or so. In covering the withdrawal, 18 Platoon, under Sergeant S Henry and Corporal LJ Martini, fought the Germans to a standstill. For their outstanding leadership and courage, they were each awarded the MM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their platoon also had ultimately to move back to new defensive positions. There was hardly time for the company to recover from the two previous shocks when the Germans attacked in greater strength and for the third time. By now the London Irishmen were weary and almost exhausted, having had not a moment\u2019s respite since launching their original attack. The Germans closed in but every man in the company stood aggressively in his position. For fifteen minutes there was a tense struggle and suddenly, in spite of their strength, the enemy withdrew. There was a brief silence, and then a German officer shouted out that he and some of his men wanted to surrender. Major T Sweeney<\/a> went forward to accept the surrender but, with typical treachery, they challenged him and without hesitation shot him down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avenge the death of their leader, to whom all D Company were devoted, the men charged from their defences and although ammunition was running short shot up all the Germans in sight. After about half an hour, encirclement was threatened by German reinforcements and the company withdrew from Point 168 entirely. Seventeen enemy dead were left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the engagement, CSM McDaid acted with conspicuous gallantry in rallying and holding his men together. He was awarded the DCM. Fine work, too, was done by the company stretcher-bearers, and another award was the MM to Rifleman WJ McDonald, of the Regimental Aid-Post, for outstanding courage in tending the wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fighting quality of each member of the company was splendid, and individual praise would perhaps be unfair, but mention should be made of Rifleman Warren, of 18 Platoon, who although wounded and unable to walk covered the company\u2019s retirement with his Bren gun and helped to ward off the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While D Company had thus been in the thick of things, B Company, under Major D Neill, moved through mortar-fire in the valley and reaching the cemetery put in a spirited attack upon the ridge. On reaching the \u201cGerman\u201d positions they found to their mortification and surprise that it had already been taken by elements of an armoured division on the right of the battalion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next morning, after D Company had been re-formed on the slopes of Croce, under Major R Hedger MC, a further attack on Point 168 was planned. As the Commanding Officer and the two remaining Company Commanders were going into, the scheme, a passing tank drew fire from the enemy. A shell landed in the observation-post, where the \u201cO\u201d Group were, killing three other ranks and wounding the others. Thus, in twenty-four hours of re-entering battle the London Irish lost their Commanding Officer and three senior officers. In the party, also, was Major Alec Smith, of 445 Battery, 65th Field Regiment RA. He, too, was wounded, but he refused to be evacuated until he had passed on the Commanding Officer\u2019s plan to Major DAT Brett, the Second-in-Command, who hastened up on a motorcycle from B Echelon and took over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The need to take Point 168 was imperative, and C Company, under Lieutenant J Prosser, was launched at once on the hill, after a pounding from the gunners. The attack was brilliantly successful, and the hill firmly secured. The attack was made across open country under heavy fire. Sergeant R. Gamble led his platoon with such dash and courage that all the Germans holding six Spandau posts were either killed or captured. Lieutenant Prosser (unhappily later killed) and Major Alec Smith received the MC as the result of this action, and Sergeant Gamble was awarded the MM. Almost all the Germans who had made the counterattack on D Company were disposed of, but that was a small consolation for the loss of the Commanding Officer and three Company Commanders in the first twenty-four hours of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Company Seconds-in-Command arrived to take over C and A Companies, and despite casualties to the senior officers and consequent disorganisation the battalion was prepared to stay in its positions indefinitely, and if necessary to advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, the London Scottish had passed through into the valley beyond and up on to the next ridge, to occupy a farm called Il Palazzo. The 1st Welch Regiment now held the village of Croce, and thus the brigade was on a horseshoe-shaped ridge with Croce in the centre, and II Palazzo and San Sevino at the open ends. Gemmano, overlooking the London Irish from the rear, was still in German hands. This made the situation unenviable. Any movement of any sort by day brought retribution in the form of shells and mortars of all calibres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That night the London Irish buried their dead, and they lie in a cemetery near Morciano cared for and be-flowered by the local inhabitants. After last light surprise was caused by an order to withdraw to Morciano, leaving A Company to cover the right flank of the London Scottish. The withdrawal was by march route by companies across country to the Conca crossing and then uphill to Morciano, a journey with more than its share of danger, but the move went fairly smoothly. A Echelon and the Quartermaster did a splendid job, meeting the battalion with hot tea, food, and blankets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day it was learned that the situation was far from happy. A Company had been heavily attacked in the morning but had managed to hold on to a precarious but vital position. The London Scottish had failed to hold II Palazzo, and their positions in the valley were continuously and devastatingly \u201cstonked.\u201d But Gemmano had finally fallen to 167 Brigade, and the Welch, despite heavy casualties, still held Croce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not surprising that in the evening after only sixteen hours\u2019 rest the London Irish once again set out across the Conca to return to the positions they had left the previous day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was realised that the San Sevino Ridge was the key to Croce, and that Croce was the key to the whole Corps line. The battalion stayed on for three days, enduring heavy bombardments and throwing back strong German patrols probing at danger-spots. Casualties were heavy. Lieutenant Johns in the Support Company was wounded by our own twenty-five pounders; D Company lost several killed and Lieutenant Michael Spiller and others wounded in a direct hit on a house. B Company suffered the battalion\u2019s greatest loss during that period, when CSM Keenan<\/a>, a magnificent soldier and man, was killed in his slit trench by a mortar bomb bursting in the trees above. Lieutenant Bob Goodall and Lieutenant John Gates were wounded, and Lieutenant Alan Soutar<\/a>, a newly joined officer, was killed while on a two-man patrol to find out the position at II Palazzo. That patrol had been sent out regularly every day at last light, and Lieutenant Noel Dorrity did it successfully twice across the shell-swept country, and the third time Lieutenant Soutar set out. He was accompanied by a non-commissioned officer, and his orders were to lie up on the position and to report back by wireless what he had observed. When he got within four hundred yards of his objective Lieutenant Soutar told his companion to remain in a ditch under cover, while he went forward alone. Soon afterwards the non-commissioned officer heard Spandau fire and grenades explode. There were loud cries in German, and then in the light of a flare he saw Lieutenant Soutar firing his Tommy gun from the hip. At that moment a \u201cstonk\u201d came down from our own artillery behind. When it ended the non-commissioned officer found no trace of the officer but discovered two dead Germans. Lieutenant Soutar did not return, and it was confirmed later that he was killed during his single-handed combat with the enemy by whom he was outnumbered. Lieutenant Soutar came to the London Irish from a battalion of the Highland Light Infantry-a capable and fearless officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the battle for the ridge the mortar platoon did some very good shoots, but drew heavy return fire which caused losses to men and carriers. Sergeant J Coduri was badly wounded when the Germans made another direct hit on a house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the night of September 10-11, the battalion was relieved and moved back along the old familiar road to Morciano, where vehicles took them to a delightful spot near the coast away from the shells and smells of battle. One stray shell most unluckily came over during the move and wounded Sergeant Jenkins of the Intelligence Section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four days\u2019 rest was of great benefit to everybody, and during that period the battalion met the Irish Regiment of Canada. The respective bands played to each battalion, and the Canadians were persuaded to adopt blue hackles in their caubeens. The hackles were conspicuously displayed later in the attack the Canadians made on Coriano, which they captured with great spirit.The Irish Regiment of Canada has since become affiliated to the Royal Ulster Rifles, and the hackle has now been permanently adopted by the Canadian Irish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One aspect of the Croce-San Sevino battle was the heavy loss suffered by our armour. Burnt-out tanks, trackless tanks, and others ditched and abandoned were scattered all over the area-a grim sign of the severity of the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On September 16, the battalion moved up beyond San Sevino to exploit a tiny bridgehead formed by the Royal Fusiliers over the Marano River. The London Irish crossed the Marano at Francescini, and found it a wide, open watercourse at the bottom of a valley with scarcely any water at all. The battalion was heavily shelled, and among the wounded was Lieutenant F Bryant, the Pioneer Officer, who was formerly a CSM in the battalion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish had to fight for the ridge overlooking the river, and in this battle, they again encountered nebelwerfers. The ridge was gained and the London Scottish passed through on to Mullazzano. While it was still dark the London Irish set out next morning to capture Monte Olivo, a prominent height beyond the ridge. In spite of ditched carriers and knocked-out jeeps, a hot meal had been sent up, and though a bit tired the battalion was in good shape to go on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A and D Companies led the attack and first captured the crossroads at Cortellini, an essential part of the plan. A Company moved so fast that they caught two German anti-tank guns moving off, and scuppered the lot, guns, horses, and men. D Company pushed on, reached the crest of Monte Olivo, and were forced to a stop. B and C Companies went to the base of the hill, and the mortars set up in a house nearby. All day a bitter fight went on but no headway could be made. In the evening, the Welch passed through at Cortellini to outflank Olivo. They stuck on Point 227, a bare, exposed ridge, and A Company were sent to help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All next day, the third since crossing the Marano, the London Irish and the Welch tried to get on but were held by merciless fire. B Company tried to pass Point 227 but were caught in our own barrage and dug in hurriedly. Even heavier became the enemy fire, and all the companies suffered grievously. The medical jeep and the stretcher-bearers were beyond praise for their work in coping with the steady stream of wounded which they got back to the regimental aid-post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About four o\u2019clock in the afternoon of the 19th, the Brigade Commander announced that the London Scottish had broken through three miles to the banks of the River Ausa, the last river but one before the plains of Lombardy. The London Irish were ordered to disengage at once and to move back through Mullazzano, and to help the Scottish cross the river. It was impossible to disengage until dark; contact with the enemy was too close and observation by them too easy. At night the Welch took over and the London Irish, tired almost to exhaustion, set off on a seven-mile march and to cross a river which no one had seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A plan with the London Scottish was agreed from the map and information about the enemy seemed to indicate that they were not holding the river line in strength. Unfortunately, they were, and both battalions ran into a packet of trouble. B Company and a company of the London Scottish were involved in an attack and counterattack in which heavy losses were caused to both sides. Men made prisoners in one action were released in the other. Eventually B Company rallied magnificently and held on to the far side of the river. C and D Companies went across and took up successful positions, but A Company had a sticky time on the left. In the pitch darkness they dug in along a road covered by a steep bank and held on desperately, defying all German efforts to hurl them back over the river. Heavy casualties were inflicted on the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the next day, the situation was easier. The Queen\u2019s on the left had crossed under cover of the Irish-Scottish attack and had made good headway. The formation on the right flank was equally successful, and after the heights at San Marino to the west had been captured the way to the plains seemed open at last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish were ordered to stay put. The men were out on their feet and were even too tired to eat. Shelling abated but was still a nuisance. Towards evening the battalion was withdrawn and the job was nearly over. Billets, sleep, a wash and a shave, and food was the programme for the next two days. Once again, alas, the London Irish was down to two weak companies in strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To Lieut-Colonel Baucher, the Commanding Officer, came the following personal message from General Sir Oliver Leese, Commander Of 30th Corps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy congratulations to you and all ranks of your battalion on your hard fight at San Sevino. The Regiment may be proud of its part in a great and hard-fought victory. My thanks and best wishes to you all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 56th (London) Division had six thousand casualties in the heavy fighting of September, and a drastic reorganisation had to be made. 168 Brigade, which had existed as a very successful entity since training days in England, was disbanded. The 1st Battalion Welch Regiment was dissolved, as were two other battalions in the division. The London Irish, reinforced to three companies by men from the Welch Regiment, became part of 167 Brigade, with the London Scottish and the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A new Commanding Officer, Lieut-Colonel JA Sperling, DSO, joined the battalion, and on September 26 the London Irish moved up into the plains, a very welcome change after months of weary travel and toil in the mountains. The journey continued to Savignano, and orders came to cross the River Fiumicino. Reconnaissances were made and all was ready. Then came the deluge, and from a dry bed the river became a formidable torrent rising several feet in a few hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day by day the plan changed. Was the operation on or was it off?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes it was on and then two hours later it was cancelled. So it went on, with the river rising all the time. Finally, it was on, tanks or no tanks, bridges or no bridges, but then on October 2 the battalion was ordered back to Morciano. It never crossed the Fiumicino, and the bridge built there later was aptly named: \u201cItson-Itsoff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish went right back to Fermo, near Ancona, for a deserved respite. The Battle for the Gothic Line had cost the battalion five officers and eighty other ranks killed, and eighteen officers and two hundred and twenty-seven other ranks wounded. Lieut-Colonel Baucher, Major Cantopher, and Major Gibson returned to England to recover from their wounds. One outstanding and admirable feature of those months of struggle was that the untried reinforcements from the Anti-Aircraft Regiments proved themselves as fine a body of infantrymen as anyone could wish to have. They never flinched from their hard and new tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were many individual acts of gallantry during the battles beyond Croce. While crossing the Marano, several men of B Company were caught in shell and machine-gun fire and were wounded. Corporal JA Vale, a section commander, carried one of the wounded men across the open, rendered first aid, and arranged his evacuation. A day or so later, when B Company was counter-attacked after crossing the Ausa, Corporal Vale with exemplary leadership and courage assisted in destroying two enemy machine-gun posts. He was awarded the MM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the mortars were in action at the Ausa, the enemy scored a direct hit on the ammunition. Sergeant HE Allen, the mortar platoon sergeant, set a courageous example and despite the fact that ammunition was exploding all round them, his detachment remained in position and continued in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a review of the work of the 1st Battalion since he took command, Lieut-Colonel Baucher said that although from March to September 1944, the battalion had had no long period in action, it had been no easy time. There had been continuous changes in personnel, and while they were trying to build up a good fighting team to restore the losses at Anzio, the battalion had many other commitments and plans were continually being changed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n He found it impossible to find sufficient Irishmen in the Middle East to make up reinforcements, and although the gunners included many Irishmen, particularly among the officers, the percentage of Englishmen in the battalion was very high. When the London Irish returned to Italy, one thousand strong, only about twenty-five per cent were Irishmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The majority of officers and men from the gunners took their conversion to infantry extremely well and tried very hard under trying conditions. On the whole they were a great success considering the short period of training that was available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe main impression I shall always have,\u201d wrote Lieut-Colonel Baucher, \u2018Is of a very happy battalion which would always put all it could into any job provided it knew the reason why. I found the men far above the average in intelligence, and I always felt they should always be told the reason for any order which I issued. I shall always look back with great pride and happiness to the period March-September 1944.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1st Battalion rested in Fermo while the Allied advance progressed. By November 1944, Forli had been reached and it was not anticipated that the 56th (London) Division would be needed in the line for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly, however, plans were changed and the London Irish were ordered forward to make an extended bridgehead across the River Montone at Forli and so to create a diversion while the main attack went in elsewhere. To this end all preparations were made outwardly for a move by the whole division, but the only troops involved were the London Irish and skeleton forces from the three-brigade headquarters. All the divisional signals wireless sets were kept in operation, and the route forward bore the division\u2019s signposts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owing to casualties, A Company of the London Irish had been temporarily disbanded. B Company was commanded by Major A Blake, C Company by Captain RM Haigh MC, and D Company by Captain AD Hunter. The latter was injured in a jeep accident and command of the company reverted to Lieutenant D. Hutchison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After an all-night journey the battalion reached Forli and took up posts in the vicinity of the town and on the right bank of the River Montone, a deep and swiftly flowing stream about thirty yards wide. The enemy had blown the bridge and withdrawn, but it was not known how far back they had gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preliminary patrols were made and the pioneers, under Sergeant Parsons, dealt with a number of felled trees in which were hidden explosives and also with a number of glass mines which the battalion encountered for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n B Company was ferried across the river and advanced about half a mile while C Company took up positions on their left. A patrol of about twelve men went out from B Company under Lieutenant WEW Martin. Their main job was to find the enemy, but they failed to return. It was ascertained later that the party were trapped in heavy mortar-fire. Lieutenant Martin<\/a> was killed and his companions, many of whom were wounded, were captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n B and C Companies went forward another half a mile the next day and Tactical Headquarters crossed the river, followed by D Company. Further progress was made and after several men in D Company were caught in heavy shell- and mortar-fire, B Company was ordered into action against a suspected German strongpoint. Gun- and mortar-fire was laid on in support, but when the London Irish attacked, they were met with machine-gun and mortar-fire. Several men fell as Lieutenant E Little\u2019s platoon gained their objective on the left flank. There was a spirited battle in which Lieutenant Little was wounded. Unfortunately, the whole platoon was overwhelmed shortly afterwards by a powerful enemy counterattack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The right-hand platoon, under Sergeant Hill MM, fought very well and succeeded in occupying and holding German positions on that flank. Ten prisoners were taken. Dusk and a heavy ground mist hindered observation, but Major Blake sent his third platoon into the fray to support Sergeant Hill\u2019s left flank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The positions were secured and then German orders, strangely enough in \u201cclear,\u201d were intercepted. They indicated that another strong counterattack was being prepared. Defence fire was called for from the medium and field artillery and the threatened attack collapsed. The Germans were caught before they had really started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Irish were then relieved in the line and went back to Ferno. The \u201cForli Affair\u201d had lasted only a few days, but the fighting was bitter and the battalion losses in officers and other ranks totalled about fifty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By early December 1944, the 1st Battalion was back in the line on the banks of the Senio River, a peculiar form of battle with the London Irish dug in on one side of the river and the Germans on the other. The river had flood-banks about thirty feet high, with a very small stream between the two banks, and both sides were able constantly to fling missiles at each other. The fighting at times seemed unending and unfruitful. Supply problems, fortunately and for a welcome change, presented no great difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one position only were carrying parties needed, and those were used to carry up to the riverbank itself, where the London Irish positions were dug about twenty yards from the Germans\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The band, batmen, storemen, and clerks were used on these carries, and they did sterling work under fire which at times was most unhealthy. The most noticeable feature of the supply problem was the extraordinary amount of ammunition expended. On one day one thousand five hundred two-inch mortar high-explosive bombs, endless boxes of .303-inch ammunition, dozens of rounds of Piat ammunition, and large supplies of thirty-six grenades were delivered to and expended by the rifle companies. It was an occasion when the riflemen almost enjoyed war. Ammunition was unlimited, and they fired away day and night. There were several minor battles to whittle out the enemy, and on one occasion the enemy sent over a \u201cpresent\u201d-a barrel of explosive which failed to blow up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That provided C Company with an idea, and they retaliated by sending over barrels loaded with explosives which did go off, to the great discomfiture of the enemy. Occasionally the enemy succeeded in getting small harassing parties across the river, with the purpose of restricting movement and causing confusion. Normally such parties were not easy to dislodge, and frequently a platoon found it necessary to carry out a small-scale attack to drive them back. Casualties during these incidents were fortunately never severe, and any attempt on the enemy\u2019s part to retaliate was usually frustrated by the gunners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one occasion Sergeant J O\u2019Connor, who was in charge of 12 Platoon, crawled up to the top of the riverbank and, with the aid of a rifleman, located the exact positions of some German posts. The two were fired on but the task was accomplished successfully. The sergeant afterwards led a patrol which dealt effectively with some of the posts he had spotted. Corporal W Wardle, a section leader, did some good work with a Piat gun from the top of the bank to which he crawled three times. He also gave the Germans an unpleasant surprise on another occasion by bombarding them with phosphorus grenades. For their gallantry on these and other occasions the two non-commissioned officers were each awarded the MM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was while the battalion was on the Senio River that Colonel JRJ Macnamara, MP, their former Commanding Officer, was killed when paying them a visit. The London Irish were taking over positions from a Gurkha Regiment, and Colonel Macnamara recognised many old faces as he watched the battalion move up into the lines. It had always been his great ambition to lead the London Irish in battle, but his promotion denied him that opportunity. However, he told Lieut-Colonel Sperling that he would like to see the forward companies, and he went up towards the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While he was with C Company, and talking to Major MVS Boswell by the roadside, he was caught in a sudden mortar bombardment. Colonel Macnamara<\/a> and Lieutenant Prosser MC<\/a>, who was also in the group, were killed, and Major Boswell was wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The death of Colonel Macnamara in such tragic circumstances, and while for the first time he was watching in action the Regiment of which he was so proud, came as a great blow to all ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 2 the 1st Battalion left its rest area and after an all-night drive through Forli and Ravenna concentrated at San Alberto, a little village on the south-west corner of Lake Comacchio, where the Reno flows alongside the lake. The enemy were a mere one thousand yards away, and elaborate precautions had to be taken by the London Irish to keep their presence secret. That was a comparatively simple matter, owing to the Germans\u2019 lack of aircraft and to the fact that though the ground was flat and swampy, there were sufficient buildings and cover to hide both troops and vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Reno was fairly slow-moving, about twenty yards wide in most places, and it passed along the southern shore of Lake Comacchio to reach the Adriatic three miles east of San Alberto. It was bounded throughout by artificial flood-banks, similar to those on the Senio, in which the Germans had built an elaborate system of dug-outs and formidable fortifications. The work had been carried out by the Todt organisation many months before and steadily improved during the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All was now ready for the main offensive, and in a Special Order of the Day to all troops the Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean Theatre, now a Field-Marshal, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSOLDIERS, SAILORS AND AIRMEN OF THE ALLIED FORCES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATRE.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Final victory is near. The German Forces are now very groggy and only need one mighty punch to knock them out for good. The moment has now come for us to take the field for the last battle which will end the war in Europe. You know what our comrades in the West and in the East are doing on the battlefields. It is now our turn to play our decisive part. It will not be a walkover; a mortally wounded beast can still be very dangerous. You must be prepared for a hard and bitter fight; but the end is quite certain-there is not the slightest shadow of doubt about that. You, who have won every battle you have fought, are going to win this last one.<\/em> HR ALEXANDER, Field-Marshal,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Supreme Allied Commander.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The General Officer Commanding, Eighth Army, was now Lieut.-General Sir Richard L McCreery, and he sent a Special Message from his Main Headquarters. In this he said: \u201dThe Eighth Army, which started the great tide of Allied victory at El Alamein, is about to strike a knock-out blow against the Germans in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur Armies in Germany, and those of our Allies, have sent the enemy staggering back towards Berlin, but he is still fighting and he must not be allowed to use his Armies in Italy to form a garrison for a Southern German stronghold.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major PM Mahon, Officer Commanding.<\/strong>
Captain J.G Adams, Carrier Platoon.<\/strong>
Captain PJ Toal, Quartermaster.<\/strong>
Lieutenant DA Gibson, Mortar Platoon.<\/strong>
Lieutenant H St.G Gallaher, Carrier Platoon<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant A Mace, Transport Officer.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant S Sharp, Intelligence Officer.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant D McVitty, Anti-tank Platoon.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant J Gates, Pioneer Platoon.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant H Miller, Signals Platoon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major J Cantopher, GM, Officer Commanding.<\/strong>
Captain A Palmer.<\/strong>
Lieutenant GE Buss.<\/strong>
Lieutenant ALF Orr.<\/strong>
Lieutenant JV Reynolds.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain HCS Lofting, Officer Commanding.
Captain M Bonham-Carter.
Lieutenant CA Croft.
Lieutenant SW McCabe.
2nd Lieutenant T Barry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain WE Brooks, Officer Commanding.<\/strong>
Captain Stewart-Liberty.<\/strong>
Lieutenant WK Byrne.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant TW Coghlin.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant PC Isitt.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain Sir James Henry, Bt., Officer Commanding.<\/strong>
Captain JR Strick.<\/strong>
Lieutenant EM Grace.<\/strong>
Lieutenant M Power.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant TJ Sweeney.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain RA O\u2019Brien, Officer Commanding.<\/strong>
Lieutenant JA Boddam-Whetham.<\/strong>
Lieutenant AG Hamer.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant DA Hardy.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant RA Wigger.<\/strong>
2nd Lieutenant J Grennan.<\/strong>
Chaplain: The Rev T Flynn (RC).<\/strong>
Medical Officer: Lieutenant C Byrne (RAMC).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Liverpool to Iraq<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Kirkuk to Alexandria<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
BL MONTGOMERY, General<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSicily<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Syracuse to Fosso Botacetto<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Issued by Lieut-Colonel I. H. Good on July 22, 1943<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yours ever,<\/em>
I. H. GOOD.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Catania to Piedimonte Etneo<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
BL MONTGOMERY, General,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sicily, August 18, 1943.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Messina to Camino<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGarigliano River<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAnzio<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Major WE Brooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain Alan Mace.
Captain DA Hardy.
Captain GRH Mullins.
Captain RM Haigh.
Lieutenant L Rue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CSM F Kelly.
Sergeant HF Guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergeant A Mason.
Corporal C Wilson.
Corporal C Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Italy to Tivoli<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGothic Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Forli to the Senio Floodbanks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrom Lake Comacchio to the River Po<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cForward, then, into battle with confidence, faith, and determination to see it through to the end. God-speed and good luck to you all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n