1 Fd Regt RA at Cassino - March 44

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by Charley Fortnum, Sep 5, 2016.

  1. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Introduction:

    I've been working on a transcription of the March 1944 Diary for 1 Field Regiment R.A and I'll upload it here for comments/criticism - I hope some of you may find it either useful, interesting or perhaps even both.

    It has been extracted from the WO170/920 file and - in my opinion - is very useful indeed. The matter is complicated, however, by the fact that the diary is handwritten and the diarist (unknown - seemingly not the Intelligence Officer - initials himself HRF) has penned a document of wildly varying legibility and has a 'creative' style of spelling. That said, I shall end the criticism there as he's done an admirable job of recording everything going on around him, the great and the small -- excluding the voluminous appendices this month runs to some seventy-five pages. The detail in part stems from the fact that a) the unit's communications seem superb, and b) they had observers with several of the units in and around the Castle, Monastery Hill and Hangman's Hill. Readers with an interest in 5th Ind Inf Bde's exploits during the third battle will find lots on offer here, but there's also a reasonable amount of the bombardment and the New Zealanders' subsequent fighting to clear the town.

    1 Fd Regt arrived in the Cassino area on Feb 11th and departed - as this diary records - on March 27th. The unit comprised 11 Bty, 52 Bty & 80 Bty with the former two Btys' gun areas being located at 9001193 & 900200 respectively - the location of 80 Bty's guns has been omitted as far as I can see. RHQ was positioned in a house at 900197, which is pretty much precisely on 'Shit Corner', where Route Six turns and runs straight through CASSINO ('the Mad Mile') in full sight of the Monastery - a bit of a sticky wicket, but Frank de Planta assures me that the lie of the land places the location in dead ground.

    The best map I have found online to accompany the text is here:
    http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/italy_100k/txu-pclmaps-oclc-6540635-cassino-160-1941.jpg
    [very large and contemporary]

    Note on transcription:
    Words of which I am less than 90% certain appear in red; in the event that a word is partially legible I have used asterisks to mark the unknown letters, and the number of asterisks indicates the probable number of letters missing. I have entirely retained the madcap inconsistencies in capitalisation, punctuation, spelling and spacing that feature in the original in an attempt to recreate the document as loyally as possible.

    There are many appendices to this month - mostly fire plans cited in the diary.
    If anybody really needs to see them, please message me and I'll arrange it.

    Thanks:
    Adam Bruce-Watt for the excellent mock-up of the War Diary form - I modified it a little, but most of the work was his.

    Files Attached:
    1 x Diary .pdf
    2 x Award Citation for Major Oswald RA who is cited constantly in the diary (thanks Andy).

    Caveat:
    I am not an artillery man and the meaning of many technical terms foxed me. Apologies for errors stemming from this ignorance. For me, guns go bang and then stuff falls apart at the other end - hopefully enemy stuff.

    Oswald DSO.jpg Oswald DSO 2.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: May 17, 2022
  2. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Charley, the only information that i can add is regarding the map that you have mentioned. There is another map.. GSGS 4249
    CASSINO Scale 1:50.000 Sheet 160. 11 (Coloured). Its not on the link that you provided. If only. The map with a Salerno one was up for bids on E-bay the other day. Not my bag for getting into a bidding. ( Some one trying to gain coin in my eyes).. Not cricket!
    Stu.
     
  3. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Well done that man.
    Good of you to share that , it's what the forum is all about.
     
  4. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I saw that, I think, and although I'm content to spend compatively large sums on books, photographs and documents, maps rarely seem to have survived in good enough quality to justify the high prices.

    There is a reproduction on sale here:

    BHC 100103 GSGS 4229 1:50000 Cassino

    But I've never used the company and it cuts in a very awkward place, right across the masif. One instinctively feels that digital copies ought to be very cheap, but if the scan is very sharp then the price is fair and the childen won't be able to attack it with crayons...
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2020
  5. adbw

    adbw Active Member


    Extraordinary stuff and well presented - there can't be too many transcribed war diaries, in my view ...
    Adam
     
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  6. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    One small addition that may prove helpful for non-artillery minded folk:

    25-pr.jpgoriginal.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2020
    gmyles and Mark Surridge like this.
  7. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    4jonboy likes this.
  8. Cassino1944

    Cassino1944 Member

    Quite interesting and useful piece of information. Thank you very much! I am currently studing the German Counter attack at the Castle and it's defence by 1/4 Essex. Can you please confirm, if I red well, that the cristian name of Maj. Oswald was Ronald Rober William?
     
    Charley Fortnum likes this.
  9. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Robert Williamson Oswald according to the citation.

    Most interested to hear you're looking into this as I have little from the German perspective. My grandfather was with 1/4th Essex.

    Please let us know specifically what you've been looking at.

    Correction: according to that and this:

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...YQFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3bAASgYQj2rt8xqYrzmcK9

    He's Oswald Ronald William Oswald.

    Unlikely as that may seem.
     
  10. Cassino1944

    Cassino1944 Member

    Thank you very much Charley. First of all my name is Livio Cavallaro. As you can see on the web I'm a researcher about the battles for Cassino and I wrote two boks on the subject so far. I'm now writing my third one, which will go deeply into some specific events, such as the episode at the Castle. As you might know, little is left from the German perspective. However I was able to get the following confirmed info regarding the Germans:
    - Units participating;
    - Names of some officers/soldiers and photos of some of them;
    - The overall tactics used to plan and conduct the counterattack.

    Respect to your granfather.
     
  11. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I found this ages ago, but I forgot to post it here.

    An account by Peter Holloway, an officer of 52-bty, about his experiences at Cassino:

    CASSINO

    On 1 March 1944 we moved near Cassino for the battle which was to cost the lives of more of our regimental officers than any other engagement.
    52 Battery drew the short straw and found themselves on a downward slope in full view from the Monastery, whereas I had a classic gun position, sheltered by a slight crest, though I sited our ‘thunder box [loo]’ in the field behind looking directly at the Monastery.

    It was so muddy and slippery from the melted snow that I had to borrow a bulldozer to get the guns in position. Our ammo had to be delivered by American lorry with 4wd whose black driver kindly gave me cigars; our own transport could not move in the quagmire.

    As digging was impossible, we filled emptied cartridge boxes with handfuls of mud to build a Command Post. We cut down three trees to make a roof and threw our rather holey 3-tonner tarpaulin over the top, the camouflage net and all manner of natural cover on top of that.

    We spent a very cold first night so I suggested constructing a fireplace. My staff went to town and produced an excellent one from a cartridge box, complete with chimney and damper. We were able to have hot drinks and chapattis or biscuit duff, something to keep us awake. During the following days other refinements were added, two steps leading down, a blast wall so arranged as not to block the drainage system, and an attempt at thatching to reduce the amount of water coming through the cover. I gave full marks to the lot of them.

    Our real bugbear continued to be ammunition. Even the 4wd trucks could not get close to the guns after a drop of rain, so it meant humping two shells at a time across a muddy stretch of up to 100 hundred yards. When you consider that the establishment per gun started at 400 and then went up to 1000 per gun, you can imagine how much work this entailed. But done it was, not without a few murmurs at times.

    On 17 March we fired more or less solidly until 0230 hours, getting through some 2250 rounds alone during three hours of darkness. The attack was not a success; our casualties were heavy, and particularly in officers and OP’s [observation posts] who were caught in counter battery fire.

    My Troop Commander, newly arrived from home, was among those killed and I was detailed to take over his OP. After a night in the wagon lines, I set out in the Battery Commander’s armoured car followed by two jeeps. We were nearly there when, just as we were passing a derelict Sherman tank, mortar bombs arrived blowing off a wheel and putting us in the ditch. Driver North was hit in the leg and Signaller Whent in the chin. Driver Allen drove one of the jeeps into the ditch. We squatted behind the Sherman patching up the wounded, rather shaken. I found a tow chain in the armoured car, fastened it to the rear of the first jeep, ordered Driver Oliver to run his jeep up on to it, hooked on and shouted, “reverse”. So we had two jeeps in which to proceed. I left Gorman with the two wounded and went on with the rest at a rate of knots.

    I had to tell the BC the sad news and got permission to go back for the wounded and whatever I could salvage. I managed to extract the wireless but Jerry had the spot registered and started on us as soon as he saw what I was doing. The American ambulance run by Quakers, with whom I had often had coffee of an evening [I’d borrowed a book ‘So Little Time’ by John Marquand from them which I was unable to return.], had already rescued the wounded.

    Man packs for the hill climb; two water bottles per man, two blankets, greatcoat and groundsheet — the rest chiefly rations. It was a very steep climb past the dead mule with that unmistakeable stink etc and I felt pretty shattered when I reached the BC. He was commanding 1/9 Ghurka Rifles, in ”Dangle’s’ absence at Brigade, and in the midst of battle, so I took a breather.

    The previous occupant of the OP must have lain on top which seemed to me too visible, so I knocked a space in the roof and poked my head up there. The 18 set would not work but line had been laid, so I sent the signaller back with the set and we had more room. That night we lost contact when the line went and there was a certain amount of activity, so I withdrew to Battalion HQ where we had a hot drink. I went up again before dawn.

    The Company put in a night attack and I gave what observations I could. The artillery support was pretty to watch, falling all around the monastery and surrounding slopes making patterns of golden rain and dull red bursts of flame. A machine gun opened up with tracer but soon stopped as the shell bursts came closer. When daylight came, not a sign of movement anywhere, the Monastery looked just the same and, our objective, Point 446, was still without any person visible.

    I registered two targets, one I had no difficulty in hitting but the other, well ! I had two attempts of thirty rounds each without any success. I would see a burst at 7000, add 25 and it was invisible down in the valley below. I admitted defeat and the BC took over and shot off an aerial photo. His first round landed in view but verification was as difficult as before. It was an unusual shoot with the BC ordering corrections on my observations. I adjusted the other two regiments on to the first target to restore my confidence.

    There was a fall of snow and this continued to drip through the roof for hours after. We had no fire or any hot food or drink but we did have tots of navy rum. The Yank infantry on our right were better equipped with very neat little Primus stoves. I was thankful to be relieved after four days of it.
    Back on my gun position, a break in the rains allowed us to create a drain out of shell boxes with the ends cut out, placing them end-to-end to form a gutter. The BC paid several visits; gave me a bollocking for not having all my gun nets up but was very affable when I did so. He also explained why I had not been made CPO, indirectly of course, by being surprised at the seniority roll.

    We were bussed back to an American shower unit and given a change of underwear. Flying Fortresses dropped a load of bombs intended for the Monastery some fifteen miles behind our lines; we were lucky to escape casualties.

    Dry days, wet days, drab and cold days, it became boring. And when that fine day came, it was so beautiful, fresh and sunny, that all I could think of was giving the guns the go-by and taking a pretty girl on a picnic.

    It was in this Cassino position that the shelling was too much for my new subaltern fresh out from Blighty I had to ask the BC to remove him because his behaviour could have affected others. He went sick and was next heard of as a Staff Captain at Base. It was not until September that I got my third pip.

    Source:
    BBC - WW2 People's War - Cassino
     

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