{"id":6080,"date":"2019-10-03T14:43:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T14:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/?p=6080"},"modified":"2019-10-03T15:32:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T15:32:42","slug":"major-desmond-woods-2-lir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/03\/major-desmond-woods-2-lir\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Desmond Woods, 2 LIR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We were delighted to have been contacted recently by Adrian Woods, the son of Major Desmond Woods, who served with the 2nd Battalion as Officer Commanding of H Company from October 1943 to June 1944 until he was wounded in the fighting near Lake Trasimene in central Italy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As well as his note to us, Adrian also passed over some additional extensive written details of his father&#8217;s service with the London Irish Rifles that had been transcribed from an interview by military historian, Richard Doherty &#8211; it&#8217;s a most remarkable story indeed and these details will be filed in the Museum&#8217;s archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"740\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_3385-740x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6081\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_3385-740x1024.jpg 740w, https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_3385-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_3385-768x1062.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_3385.jpg 1453w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>During his 8 months with the London Irish Rifles, Major Woods was present during some of the most momentous battle periods for the 2nd Battalion &#8211; at the Sangro river, near Monte Cassino and at Sanfatucchio to the west of Trasimene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/regimental-history\/significant-events-from-our-history\/sinagoga-may-1944\/\">During the assault on Casa Sinagoga on 16th May 1944<\/a> , H Company formed the centre of the battalion&#8217;s advance which ultimately broke through the vaunted Gustav Line in the Liri Valley and it was here that Major Woods was awarded a bar to the Military Cross that he had received before the war &#8211; at the same time, he would unsuccessfully recommend Corporal Jimmy Barnes for a posthumous Victoria Cross for his part in that day of most bitter fighting for 2 LIR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After being wounded and medically downgraded, Desmond Woods became a Training Major for the Italian Gruppi Cremona in northern Italy before undertaking a distinguished post war service overseas with the Royal Ulster Rifles and later with other units in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quis Separabit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/obituaries\/1406161\/Lt-Col-Desmond-Woods.html\">A link to Desmond Woods&#8217; obituary can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We were delighted to have been contacted recently by Adrian Woods, the son of Major Desmond Woods, who served with the 2nd Battalion as Officer Commanding of H Company from October 1943 to June 1944 until he was wounded in the fighting near Lake Trasimene in central Italy. As well as his note to us, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regimental-history","category-second-world-war","category-london-irish-at-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6080"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6092,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080\/revisions\/6092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}