Award Military Medal R.S.M. F. G. Findley, RASC attached No. 6 Commando (Tunisia)

Discussion in 'Commandos & Royal Marines' started by brithm, Oct 27, 2022.

  1. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    Award Military Medal Troop Serjeant Major Frederick G. Findley, Royal Army Service Corps attached No. 6 Commando (5041667) for assault on Djebel Azag, 6th January 1943, against troops from the elite Fallschirmjäger Regiment Barenthin.

    WO 373/2/382
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    Frederick George Findley was born in Attleborough, Warwickshire, on 24 August 1902 and attested for the North Staffordshire Regiment at Lichfield in May 1921, seeing service in Gibraltar, Turkey and India before transferring to the Army Reserve in 1928.

    During the Second World War, Findley served in the Royal Army Service Corps attached to 6 Commando and was decorated for his actions at Djebel Azag where an attempt was made by the British 36th Brigade Group to capture the feature known to the British as Green Hill, on 5th to 7th January 1943. Commanding the Sedjanane to Mateur road in Northern Tunisia, Green Hill was held by men from Fallschirmjäger Regiment Barenthin (German Parachute Infantry) and Witzig’s Parachute Engineers who had fortified the hill with concrete machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and mines.

    In his report on the ‘Attack on Djebel Azag’, Captain J. A. D. Mayne, Somerset L.I., describes how ‘Mand Force’ from No. 6 Commando, comprising Force HQ, No. 1 Troop (complete), 1 Section from No. 2 Troop and one partial section from No. 5 Troop (commanded by Findley) were tasked with the following objectives:

    i) To capture and hold “Djebel Azag.
    ii) To assist, by supporting fire, the attack on “Greenhill” and “Si Ayed”
    iii) To establish an Observation Post for a Forward Observation Officer to cover targets on and behind ‘Greenhill” area.

    Hilary St. George Saunders’ narrative of this action in the Green Beret describes the struggle between No. 6 Commando and the elite German paratroops dug in on the hill:

    Though the attack on Green Hill had failed, the small action fought by Mand Force, as Mayne’s detachment was called, provides a good example of what men can accomplish who have passed through Commando training. They had been isolated for two days, in a most exposed position, and subject to galling mortar fire; but they had occupied the attention of four or five times their number who might very well have been employed elsewhere.’

    May have taken part in Operation Kitbag, a raid by British Commandos of No. 6 Commando and No. 12 Commando on the town of Floro in Norway. Findley was a parachutist who, during his para course, landed in the top of another soldier’s parachute during a training descent which caused an injury to Findley’s back. Post-War he was a member of the Commando Association whose records state that his last rank attained was Regimental Sergeant Major and that he also served in No. 12 Commando. He died in 1960 in Hessingford, Cornwall.

    Medals, paybook and other items being sold at Noonan's, Mayfair Lot 221 Military Medal, G.VI.R. (T/5041667 W.O. Cl.3. F. G. Findley. R.A.S.C.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine (6) (6) £3,000-£4,000

    Soldiers’ Service and Pay Book inside which is a hand traced map of Floro, Norway with important sites and German positions marked. This map is suggestive of Findley’s participation in Operation Kitbag, a raid by British Commandos of No. 6 Commando and No. 12 Commando on the town of Floro in Norway during the Second World War - ‘Kitbag’ embarked from Scapa Flow on H.M.S. Prince Charles on 9 December 1941 but after navigational difficulties the raid was eventually called off; the recipient’s Old Comrades Association of the Special Service Brigade membership booklet, signed by the recipient and dated 9 July 1943; Pay Form No. 48 for the recipient’s Military Medal Gratuity of £20; the recipient’s Service and Casualty Form (Part I) dated 9 October 1928; copied research and a photographic image of recipient in uniform.
     

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