The 4th Battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment recorded a running total of casualties sustained at the end of each month in the pages of the war diaries. I thought it might be of interest, particularly the numbers of wounded and missing, which you don’t hear much about. Even in todays conflicts!!!! June 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 4/22 Wounded 5/94 Missing 2/12 Total 11/128 July 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 3/35 Wounded 3/67 Missing 0/22 Total 6/104 August/September 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 1/49 Wounded 10/194 Missing 2/9 Total 13/252 Reinforcements (Sept) - 10 Officers and 180 Other ranks October 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 0/12 Wounded 1/49 Missing 0/3 Total 1/91 Reinforcements (October) - 2 Officers and 112 Other ranks November 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 2/10 Wounded 0/52 Missing 0/3 Total 2/65 Reinforcements (November) - 3 Officers and 161 Other ranks December 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 0/1 Wounded 1/5 missing 0/0 Total 1/6 Reinforcements (December) - 3 Officers and 197 Other ranks April 1944 Officers/Other ranks Killed 1/7 Wounded 3/66 Missing 0/2 Total 4/75 Summary of casualties from the commencement of the campaign in June 1944 until 30 April 1945 Officers/Other ranks Killed 11/140 Wounded 23/534 Missing 5/ 49 Total 39/723 Number of deaths recorded in the war diaries - 151 Number of deaths recorded on the Cwgc Database - 199. An extra 48 men died of wounds or missing men were never found. A further 7 men died from 1 May 1945 to 31 December 1947, either from wounds sustained in actions before Germany surrendured or post war accidents.
I thought all battalions kept records, attached 5th Camerons. There was a coplete turnover in total personnel.
A number I've read, have not split out the details. ie killed/wounded/missing or died of wounds/never found after being reported missing.
These are very interesting - thanks. To put the figures in context, it would be really useful to know what the battalion's ration strength was from month to month also. Do you happen to have any numbers for that? Best, Alan
Alan I only have the daily situation report for April 1945, which covers the period when Op Quick Anger took place (2nd Assault upon Arnhem). Will be visiting Kew again early next year, so I can check to see if I missed them, or they were not there. The other interesting thing contained within the war diary is a personal diary of it's CO, in which he pasted copies of the Medal Citations. April shown below, which appears at almost normal strength for a Battalion.
Hi Rob, Is there any field returns within the diary? Quite a lot of the BEF diaries have them with monthly figures for Officers (Named), OR's (Overall figure and or Individual Trades) and personnel (Not just officers) that are attached from other regiments (Normally regiment and or trade and if your lucky name, rank and number as well). Regards Andy
Andy I presume you mean this form. When I copied the Lincs Diary, at the time, I did it for someone else and they were not interested in that sort of detail. Not only that, the size of the sheets and the way they bind them into the war diary makes them difficult to unfold and photograph.
Thats em mate. I know what you mean about them being hard to copy sometimes (Idiots with hole punches). I know some folk just copy the actual diary and each to their own I guess but I learnt early on that sometimes some of the more interesting detail and little gems can be found in the 'boring stuff' hence why I copy everything I can Cheers Andy
I started copying parts of those returns which have names of injured personnel. A good way of building up a list of men who served in a unit. The officers returns are the most useful and you get a complete list.
Pete No they don't have a seperate reference. The returns are in each months war dairy folder, or they should be. Cheers - Rob