2 Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers with the BEF 1939 to 1940

Hello redvining.

Welcome to the forum

Your grandfather Major R. E. D. Vining was in September 1939 Company commander of C Coy. In may 1940 he was 2nd in command of the 2 Inniskilling. His Army No. was 15863. He was captured on the 27 may 1940 during the battle of Wyschaete along with the entire Bn Hq. He spent the rest of the war as a POW in Oflag IX-A Spangenberg.

Regards Koen

 

UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945
Name: R E D Vining
Rank: Major
Army Number: 15863
Regiment: Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
POW Number: 428
Camp Type: Oflag
Camp Number: IX-A
Camp Location: Spangenberg, Hesse

TD

 

redvining, please have a read of the four attachments. Its taken from THE ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS IN THE THE SECOND WORLD WAR By Sir Frank Fox. Published by Gale & Polden.







I'm sure these will be of use to yourself, & something to be proud of. M.I.D. twice, that takes some doing.

Regards
Stu. P.s. Sorry that the first attachment is not vertical.

 

APPENDIX III, SERVICE WITH OTHER UNITS. Page 192 from the above book that i mentioned in my last post.


Vining, R.E.D. : Major, 18-24 January 1940, A./D.A.A.G., 5TH Div., France. Acting Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General. I think ..

Regards
Stu.

 

Excellent Stuff.
Thanks very much for sharing!

Andy

 

Koen

Thank you for sharing this. It contains details about my Great Uncle James Alexander McCarron Sgt 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers. I knew that he was at Dunkirk where he received a head injury which caused temporary blindness. He was later repatriated home to Northern Ireland where he spent time at Campbell College Military Hospital in Belfast. Although I have a copy of the war diaries for the 2nd Inniskillings at Dunkirk I wasn't aware of which POW camp he was and this has confirmed it.

James later went out to India to join my Grandfather Emerson McCarron Cpl with the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers before being sent into Burma for the 2nd time....Battle of Sittang River and the first Arakan campaign. James McCarron Sgt was captured by the Japanese at the Battle at Sittang River but my Grandfather Emerson McCarron and other Inniskillings regrouped and planned to carry out a counterattack and rescue mission. This was successful in freeing James McCarron, other Inniskillings POWs and 8th Belfast HAA POWs too. They'd been found alive in small bamboo cages with no room to sit or lay down and the ground was covered in excrement as many of them had dysentery and malaria. Those Inniskillings who were captured but injured were used for bayonet and target practice by their Japanese captors.

James and my Grandfather Emerson's half brother Edward Laird Pte had been captured at Yenangyaung in April 1942. My Grandfather Emerson McCarron had fought his way out. He was one of the little over a hundred Inniskillings who marched the 500 miles back to Imphal....500 of the rest of the Battalion weren't so fortunate!

Edward Joseph Laird Pte was captured on 19 April 1942. He was later executed on 19 June 1942 after mouthing off about 2 other Signaller comrades who just been shot. He was bound and ordered to kneel. The Japanese officer raised his katana sword above
his head bringing it down on the top of Edward's scalp splicing his head open. The bodies were left to be scavenged by vultures and whatever other wild animals. The bodies were later found by other Inniskillings POWs and permission to bury all three at the side of the river but they were not allowed to remove their personal effects such as dogtags etc . Edwards body was never recovered probably due to the monsoons having washed their remains away. He is forever remembered at Taukkyan Cemetery in Yangon present day Myanmar. I'd obtained a copy of the file detailing those who were injured , captured and taken POW, and those who were killed in action among the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. There were recorded eye witness accounts of what had happened to Edward Laird which confirmed the story my Grandfather Emerson McCarron Cpl had been given about the execution of his half brother .

 

My Father, Second Lieutenant William McKenzie Megaw was with the regiment in 1940. He passed in 1993 but told me a few anecdotes as I was growing up. Please forgive me if I my memory (or his memory) is not perfect.

He joined up in Sept 1939 on the Monday after war was declared and after officer training in (I think Dunbar) was posted to the 2nd Battalion in France in 1940. He said that advancing into Belgium in the summer of 1940 with his platoon was a wonderful experience. Subsequently, he was wounded in the left leg during defence of the Ypres-Comines Canal. My Father said that he was standing with two other officers just behind their positions, when a group of Germans who had gotten around behind them opened up with a machine gun. Said he felt a tremendous kill in the leg. The two officers either side of him were killed.

They were in retreat and he told his Platoon Sergeant to leave him behind. His Sergeant replied something to the effect of, not on your bloody life Sir. He proceeded to pick my Father up like a child in his arms and carried him off. My Father was slight in statue and only 20 so not heavy. My Father told of waiting with his Sergeant for an ambulance to pick him up. Unfortunately, when an ambulance came there was no room for my Father and his Sergeant said, that was the last ambulance Sir, looks like we are in the bag. But, another ambulance turned up a little later and my Father was taken to Dunkirk. He said that is was just as well that he was not on the first ambulance because he said it was hit my a shell, and (I think) they were killed.

At Dunkirk, they were only letting wounded onto the ships. Two soldiers who my Father didn't know came along, picked him up on his stretcher and carried him on board. Thus all three were evacuated. [When I saw a version of this scene played out in the recent movie 'Dunkirk' I was stunned].

My Father's cousin (also Megaw) was killed in France in 1940. The authorities mixed up their names, my Grand Parents received my Father's death notice and his Cousin's parents who lived a couple of streets over received notice that my Father's Cousin had been wounded. My Father wrote letters home from hospital in England and one arrived with another cousin who lived next door. She ran into my Grandparent's house to say that my Father was alive. They then realized (since there had been no word from my Father's Cousin) what must have happened and walked to his Cousin's parents to let them know what they suspected was the awful news.

My Father recovered and was put on active service with the 2nd Battalion in Co. Down, N. Ireland. He said that he became very browned off and volunteered for active service overseas. My Father was posted to the 1st Battalion in India and went on to Burma. He said it was the stupidest thing that he ever did. Then qualified this by saying that if he had stayed with the 2nd Battalion he would (in his opinion) almost certainly have been killed in the enormous battles in Italy. Father served in the 1st Arakan at Donbaik, and was wounded again. This time the fingers of his left hand were broken. He said that this happened as he was riding on the back of tank. I think he said it was hit but am not sure. Anyway the occupants of the turret climbed out and the hatch flipped back slamming down on his hand. My Father was unable to have the fingers re-set because he was weeks "in the bush" (I assume this was during the retreat back to India) and by the time he got back to a hospital it was too late. By that time he also had dysentery and malaria and was in hospital for some time in India.

My understanding is that the 1st Battalion was converted to a training Battalion in India. My Father served with them until the end of the war, when he was posted to Austria as part of the army of occupation. He was subsequently demobbed in 1946 as no longer A1 fit.

 

My mums uncle Serjeant Robert Ernest Reid was one. He was seriously wounded at Dunkirk but survived, was sent home with an untreated bloody wound in his shoulder. He was plied with alcohol and incredibly got home to Derry to be nursed by his mum and sister my gran. He was sadly killed at Medjez el Bab later in the war. See threads about him. Also there was Sgt Frank McAteer.

 

Hi Koen is there a way I can view the photos earlier in this thread please? I would love to find one of Ernie Reid.

 

Hello Alison. I have re-posted the photos.

 

Thank you

 

I am on the Great War forum and some amazing people produce sick and wounded lists from sifting through mounds of records. I am currently hoping a first war relative shows us what his wound was! However, referring to Ernie above I assume he was shot at on the beach at Dunkirk sustaining a shoulder wound. Is there anywhere I can find that detail please? I dnt know why but I thought it aircraft gunfire. He just it was carnage when he got home.

 

Whilst researching the neighbouring unit (2RSF) I have an account of Second Lieutenant William McKenzie Megaw.
He was commanding the machine gun position placed on top of the Bunker (near the Entrepot, where the railway meets the canal, North of Hollebeke)
due to its elevated position they could see the Germans of the 31st Division moving on the ridge North East of the position. This allowed them to inflict heavy casualties and held this end of the ridge.
When he set up there was a local cafe owner Jacques Delbecque and his family, as well as the family of Jules L. Pieters were hiding there (the cafe was across the road from the bunker) his stock of beer filled the inside of the bunker and his family could barely hide in there with it!
So George set his gun up on the roof.
Here they held long past the time the rest of their battalion had withdrawn on their right and held on until C coy from the Royal Scots Fusiliers withdrew back through them at about 14:00 on the 27th May.
His actions enabled many Fusiliers (both Scots and Inniskillings) to withdraw back down the length of the canal whilst the Germans closed in from both sides.

Its not recorded, but i believe the MG was a Vickers attached to the battalion from the 1/9th Manchesters.

 

Is this recorded on the film about the InniskillingS as it seems a familiar piece of info. Thank you for posting this perhaps this action got Ernie and others to the beach at least.

 

Thank you for this information, my wifes grandfather was Fusilier John Green

 

I’m French, living near Le Mans (France).

I’m searching the war diary of RIF 2nd Battalion : from September 16, 1939 until a minimum of end of October 1939. As it does not appear to be digitized on the nationalarchives.gov.uk site, does anyone have a copy?

The RIF 2nd Battalion disembarked at Cherbourg on September 16, 1939. It has stationed at the Chapel Saint Aubin, near Le Mans, at least from 19/09/1939 to 26/09/1939. On 19/09/1939 Sergeant LAMONT John accidentally killed himself. His Bren Gun Carrier overturned. He is buried in the West Cemetery in Le Mans.

On the site I saw 2 pictures taken by Lt Keating G, official photographer, at the Chapelle Saint Aubin, the first « Bren gun carriers of 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers pass through Chapel St Aubin near Le Mans, 24 September 1939 » is referenced O 47 in IWM London collection 4700-61, the second « Men of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers write letters home from their billet in Chapel St Aubin near Le Mans, 24 September 1939. » is O 53. But there are ohers pictures at the Chapel : O 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 44, 48, 49, 54, 55, 57 and 562. There is also a picture taken at the back of the Cathedral of Le Mans O 663 on 25/09/1939 by Lieutenant Keating, showing military trucks with soldiers. I don’t know what regiment it is.

The picture O 562 taken by Lt Keating G, shows an official cinematographer, Lt Harry Rignold with his assistant, Lt Gerry Massey Collier, installed on a bren gun carrier filming the BGC seen in picture O 47. I found the film that lasts 4 min and 41 seconds on the IWM website. Reference AYY_2_05_F1A35.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards

FA

Attachment shows 17 photos taken at Chapelle Saint Aubin from September 24 to 26, 1939 and one taken at Le Mans on September 27, 1939

 

Hi
Hope it's ok to ask this here and I'm aware there are likely very few left but I'm trying to trace information on my Grandad. He was in the Iniskillins - possibly the 2 Royal Iniskillins?? I've had his service record but a lot of this is illegible or faded. He was apparently at Dunkirk and may have been on a Lewis Gun from what I recall relatives saying but this is only 2nd/3rd hand information so may be incorrect. He was in the TA before the war from what his record says. He then appears to have been discharged/grabbed from the army in 1942 to be a coal miner according to his army record (where he remained until his death). His last posting looks like Belfast in 1942 and I recall family saying he was on guard duty during an air raid there??
His name was Frederick Arthur Elton but went by Arthur, he was from Ilkestone in Derbyshire and as he was very short and so was apparently known as Little Arthur in the army according to a fellow soldier he served with who my Dad coincidentally found many years ago.
Any information at all no matter what would be gratefully recieved. He was a very private man who spoke little and the wartime generation have all gone from the family now. If you do have information please drop me a line on crunchiethediver@hotmail.com
Many thanks
K Elton

 

Hello Kirst, welcome to the forum. Your first port of call is to get a fresh (unfaded) copy of his service records from the MOD.
Requests for personal data and service records: a detailed guide
This may take a while to come back, as they are massively busy and understaffed at the moment. so get it underway now!

When you have this, many of us here can help you work out what it says and what all the acronyms mean.
good luck!

 

I imagine there aren't that many people active in here any more, but on the off chance someone sees this, I'm looking for some information for my Granddad. His Dad (Ernest James Limerick) was from Nottingham, and was with the Inneskilling Fusiliers, and I'm thinking the second, due to where he served. All I really know is that he spent time in India (where he got dysentery and malaria),and in Italy, and that he returned home with PTSD, as I imagine most did. I know he did his initial training at Fornby, if that gives any clues. I don't really imagine anyone would know who I'm talking about to be fair, but does anyone have any advice on how to find his records? I've searched through the paid sites, and can't find a service number for him or anything, I've also searched for his name on the Kew archives website, and have come up empty.

*I've just seen a guide has been posted directly above, thank you!*

Thanks for reading!
Lois