Royal Leicestershire Regiment 1st Bn.

[Peter Clare]

Having very little knowledge of land warfare thought there would be someone here who could answer my question.

I'd like to know where the Royal Leicestershire Regiment 1st Bn were in August 1944 and what they were doing.

Best Regards
Peter

[von Poop]

Not really my thing either Peter as I'm always confused by Regiments etc. but I'll have a stab in the Cassino-related absence of two leading 'Regimentalists'.

6/7/44 they joined the 49th Division
British Light Infantry Regiments & National Service
As part of the 147th Infantry Brigade.

And it seems from this site on the Leicestershires they spent 1944 heading towards Le Havre and crossing the Seine, after breaking out from Cagny once the Caen fighting was done:
Green Tigers - Normandy.
They happen to be the town Battalion for Leicester and I'm often in the vicinity of their Regimental Museum, and the local records office where the war diaries are apparently kept so if there's anything more specific needs looking into I can easily ask there.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Peter Clare]

Thanks Adam,

I'm attempting to research a War Memorial in Aberdovey, Mid Wales. My father is commemorated on the memorial and I thought I would have a go at discovering how the others named on it were lost, not done this sort of thing before, anyway one name is Major John Ryland Dain of the Leicestershire Regiment, Dain was killed on 26 August 1944, I have since discovered he died in France so your assumption that the Regiment were fighting towards Le Havre and crossing the Seine would seem to be correct.

Thanks also for the offer of 'looking into things' but at this point I think I'll stick to the info I now have, maybe in the future, it depends how deeply I go into this.

Once again, many thanks.
Peter