Can anyone help me? 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment

BNAF indicates "British North Africa Force". which was formed prior to the invasion of Italy.

It would appear that he embarked for Service overseas on 12/11/43 and disembarked 27/11/43 although I cannot see where. He could well have been posted directly to Italy. The reference to BNAF would not necessarily indicate that he was in North Africa.

As he was with the 2nd Northamptons, you do not really need to look at other units. As Owen has said, the Battalion were involved in an action in the Fortress area at the time and lost ground. Inevitably, grave marking would not have been the first priority.

I have seen Anzio described as the closest thing that WW2 had to the trench warfare of the Great War. It really would be a good idea to pick up a general book on Anzio to get a feel for it.

I suspect that the only way to get more specific information might be the Battalion War diaries at Kew.

 

Crikey Owen, You've gone from potential customer to super-salesman in the space of a week ! Are you enjoying the book ?

 

this is great thanks again for all the help i will certainly look into getting hold of this book!

 

Natasha -
I missed all of the efforts to place your relatives movements and have just caught up with the thread with Lesley's plea for help.....so as far as I can understand he joined finally in Feb '43 at the 52nd primary training wing for his six weeks Infantry and indoctrination...went overseas - probably landed at Algiers where all the transit camps were for the BNAF - posted to Italy(CMF) - probably from Bone or Bizerta to join the Northamptons at the Garigliano prior to their move to Anzio - where he was killed at the Fortress - he was posted as "missing" until they found him.

Like nearly 8,000 others - his remains are in the Cassino Cemetery.

Now on to Lesley's similar query.


EDIT by Owen: I've moved Lesley's query to it's own thread as it about a different regiment.
Cheers

It's well worth a visit

 

Hi I have found this post and the answers really interesting and they have helped me somewhat with trying to find the movements of the 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. I have been a bit confused as to whether they were with 8th Army though at Sicily (Operation Baytown) From what I have found on the Internet I thought that they separated from 5th division...

Anyway I know my Great Uncle was killed 30th October 1943 and I know he was near Foggia at some point. Can anyone tell me where they went after Foggia and where they were on October 30th please

He is buried at Cassino War Cemetery but until I obtain his service record a good guess at where he was killed would help.

 

Owen you are brilliant!! Thank you very much. My Gran always said that my Great Uncle was killed by shell fire and this seems to tie in with this text. His name was John Hughes Jacques and I wonder if those boys at Cassino War Cemetery on your next thread were together at the time they were killed. I do have a picture of his grave thanks. My mum went to visit it a couple of years ago.

I'm hoping my Great Aunt will sign the consent form for the Service Record and then I can find out when he enlisted and where he was after training at Newquay!

Thanks again Owen. I really appreciate your help.

 

It does look lovely in the sunny weather! I bet it was grim for them trying to scale that and shells going off everywhere though. Not easy to sneak up on them!

 

From "A History of the 58th"

By 15.00 hrs on the 28th the Battalion had moved forward to the southern outskirts of the mountain village of St. Elena, when orders were received for the Battalion to move through the leading battalion of the Brigade and capture Macchiagodena. Reconnaissances were immediately made by the Commanding Officer and the Company Commanders, and it was decided that the village could only be captured by clearing the enemy from the mountains that overlooked the road leading to it. Owing to the bad road conditions, the artillery, other than the 75mm Airborne Regiment, had not been able to get forward, so the operation was postponed for twenty-four hours soon after the reconnaissance had been made.

Attack goes in The attack started at dawn on 30th October, and by 06.40 hrs. "A" Company had reached point 1385 and protected the right flank of the Battalion. By 08.00 hrs., phase two was complete and "B" and "C" Companies had reached point 1281, but "C" has been unable to remain on the crest of point 1281 because of the bare, rocky nature of the ground and the very heavy enemy artillery fire. "D" Company then moved through and attacked point 1102. They had only slight opposition from L.M.G. fire, but were heavily mortared and shelled. By 13.00 hrs. the Battalion was well established on the spur south of point 1281 and point 1102. The crest of point 1281, although not in our hands was not held by the enemy. Heavy shelling and mortaring of the forward areas began to cause a number of casualties. "D" Company H.Q. losing a C.S.M. and three signallers from one direct hit.

Patrol Activity By the late afternoon a thick fall of mist had shrouded the companies who had been fighting the battle well over 4,000 feet above sea level. Wireless communication was the only means of maintaining contact. Patrolling brought satisfactory results ; at 06.15 hrs. on the last day of October our final objective was reported as strongly held by the enemy. The fighting patrol under Lieut. Hamer was able to get into the village a few hours later and reported it clear. By 10.40 hrs. the Battalion had occupied Macchiagodena without opposition.

The C.S.M. referred to was Company Sergeant Major McParkland.

Private J. Jacques is listed in the 'In Memoriam' pages of this Battalion history.

 

From "History of the Northamptonshire Regiment 1934 - 1948"

Advance to the Sangro, 25th October - 19th November

"The period of rest and training at Troia ended on 25th October, when the 58th moved in T.C.V.s to east of Vinchiaturo. There they got in touch with a Canadian Battalion which was in contact with the enemy in Boiano. After two nights in this area, they moved across country as reserve Battalion to the Brigade, and on reaching the outskirts of a mountain village received orders to occupy a feature, Point 1385 on the next day, and then to go on and take the town of Macchiagodena. However, heavy rain and bad roads delayed the arrival of the artillery to support the attack and there was a twenty-four hour postponement.
In the meantime, three British officers who had escaped from a prisoners-of-war camp made their way into the Battalion lines. One of them was Lieut. Truckle of the 5th Battalion who had been captured during the Tunisian campaign.
Before daybreak on the 30th, the 58th moved up to their start line. "A" Company and a company of the Seaforth Highlanders then advanced and secured Point 1385 without opposition. At 09.40 hrs, after an artillery concentration, no. 14 platoon of "C" attacked another feature, Point 1102, forcing a small party of enemy off it; the rest of "C" and "D" Companies then advanced on to adjacent heights, while "B" occupied Point 1102. In the course of the same afternoon "C" and "D" were heavily shelled, incurring some thirty casualties, which included ten killed and four officers - Capt. Parratt and 2/Lieut. Northfield of "C" and Lieuts. Walker and Hoffman of "D" - wounded.

The Battalion spent a cold, wet and miserable night in positions about four thousand feet above sea level. The only means of getting up supplies was by mule, across four miles of rough going and this was made more difficult by a dense mist which made it impossible to find Forward battalion H.Q. which had moved. However, thanks to the efforts of Major Houchin and R.S.M. Batchelor, the Battalion got its supplies while admirable work by the M.O. Capt. Lamb, and Sgt. Lee overcame the difficulties in the evacuation of the wounded. The administrative lessons which were learnt were the foundation for the organisation which worked so well in later operations."

The R.S.M., Dick Batchelor, was my Grandfather. I think that my brother has copies of the War Diary for this period but I lost my set with a hard drive crash. I'll see what else I can find.

 

C.S.M. Terence McParkland who was among those killed at Macchiagodena appears in this photograph of the Battalion NCOs and senior officers. (He was then a Sergeant). He is second from left in the third row.



The photograph was taken in Caterham prior to the Battalion's departure overseas.

 

Rich thank you so very much. It was a very emotional experience to learn so much about what my Great Uncle's final few hours would have been like...well, I can't thank you enough. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Also you must be very proud of your Grandfather. Did he survive the war?

 

The photo is a great help too. I know my Great Uncle was in Lincoln in *January 1942 because my Gran told her several times that Mum, who was born Dec. 1941, was only about 6 weeks old. It makes sense that if he was in Newquay doing signal training, he would stay in the south of England.

Is the information I have correct that they would have gone to India, Iraq, Persia etc?


*Edit: This is a slightly confused recollection. His service record shows that he was in Lincoln from April 1942.