4691576 George FRETWELL, 1 KOYLI: 13/07/1943 - What was he doing when he died ?

I am doing some research for a family member of a friend who died in 1943 and am looking for some help if possible? I am looked at the normal sites such as CWGC, Ancestry and have the basics and was wondering if anybody had extracts from Battalion, Regimental diaries or know what happened on the day the below gent was killed?

Lance Corporal George Fretwell
Service Number 4691576

Died 13/07/1943

1st Bn.
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

Who is buried in
Syracuse War Cemetery

Thank you in anticipation

 

Hi,

Welcome to the forum

As it’s only a couple of days after the invasion of Sicily began he was likely a battle casualty there.

You might want to obtain the regimental history or one of the many books about the invasion of Sicily for an overview of what was going on but if you are interested in granular detail you will probably want to have sight of 1st KOYLI War Diary.

A couple of members offer a National Archives look up and copy service. Contact Drew Drew5233 or Lee PsyWar.Org. One of them might already have a copy of the WD.

He will be listed on the official casualty lists on FMP so you should be able to confirm whether he was KIA or died of wounds or in some other way.

Good Luck

Steve

 

Thank you Steve appreciated

 

Owen that’s brilliant thank you

 

Here are the hopefully-relevant pages from Ellenberger's History of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Vol VI 1939-1945 (watch out for the similarly-titled Vol V by Hingston that only covers 1939-1942 albeit in possibly greater detail).

 

Regarding the war diaries: don't have any qualms about asking either of our two dataminers, they are far cheaper than getting the Archives to do it and probably unbeaten anywhere.

 

Thanks for the quick replies and will look into “dataminers” appreciated