Hi Lisa Here is what I have on your great uncle. DONOHUE Frank Private 1824175 1/4th Battalion - C Company Essex Regiment 4th Indian Infantry Division 5th Indian Infantry Brigade Died of wounds sustained on 10 December 1944, whilst advancing towards an ELAS stronghold based in School. Map ref: 293405. Evacuated to Italy. 1944 Map of Piraeus (Port of Athens) 4th Indian Infantry Division were flown to Greece at short notice to Greece to help quell an insurgency by ELAS, which was the military arm of the the largest Greek resistance movements (EAM) of WW2. Their task was help re-take control of the Port which was under the occupation of the first Athens ELAS Corps. Further reading RED EAGLES The Story of the 4th Indian Division - Naval & Military Press Hope this helps Gus
Wow!. That’s amazing information Gus! Really appreciate your time looking into it. Any more info you come across would be greatly rec’d.
Research on the subway home (happy to be upstaged by Gus). The casualty book agrees he was wounded on 10/12/44 (but only wounded). As the only recorded casualty from the battalion that day, he is likely (I cannot say certainly) the OR from C-Company reported to HQ as wounded at 0738 hrs. The enemy had been reported as hard to locate, and the next report from the company is of heavy sniping as they advanced. edit: error removed—there was a similarly named man in A-Coy.
Hi! Yes I think I found that he was wounded in December but only died in April. Quite strange! But I think Gus suggested he could have been injured again in Greece and flown back to Italy when he later died. I find this really interesting, as coming from a non-history enthusiast myself I find it so engrossing when you find your great uncle was involved in this. Thanks Charley!!
He was wounded on 10th December 1944, so your theory is correct Frank. Initially Royal Artillery, but transferred to the infantry (Dorsets) in May 1944.
Hey Gary! Interesting. So Frank was a gunman? He was transferred to direct engagement with the ‘enemy’, obviously this was his fate which landed him to pass away in April. But I wonder how he actually died on 10/4 since he was wounded on 10/12. I’m really loving all this info.!! Thank you sooo much!!!
can anyone locate his death certificate as we’ve said what’s happened after he got wounded in December but ‘died of wounds sustained on 10/12’ how bad was he? Was he hopsital for all that time?
I doubt he was wounded a second time, as there would be another entry on the casualty lists. Unfortunately, you may never find out why he died as TNA are overzealous to say the least for the redactions - certainly anything medical seems to get excluded. Some recent ones I've seen also have had every signature, address, phone number (yes, 85-year-old phone numbers), religion, and NOK redacted. Very disappointing.
that is a shame! Very disappointing but fair enough. Thanks for responding! appreciate all the info. My dad (Frank Jnr) said his dad told him that Frank (Snr) was out at the pictures and when he came out some yank in a jeep basically hit him and he died. My dad is not sure how true this is but surely that would have been ‘recorded’ as such if it did.
Ah, you should have mentioned this earlier. The casualty lists only include wounded 'battle casualties', but they do have 'Died' and 'died as a result of accident'. I missed it, but if you look closely at the wording next to the entry above it does say 'Died res. acc.' - Died as a result of accident. I can't find the other page 1736/6 on FMP though which is probably why it doesn't appear on their search - seems they either haven't scanned it or it was missing from the file.
To be honest my dad only told me tonight after I found out more about Frank. my dad didn’t really believe the story and thought it was something his dad had made up. But seems it was either that or similar. Nice to have it confirmed.
