Hi all, I am trying to find out more about my Grandfather Eric Freeman who served with the 5th Grenadier Guards. I have found out that his service number was 2624162 and he was reported missing then as a POW on 07/04/1944. I have been through a few posts on here and downloaded some of the scanned pages from Feb 1944 which is great and currently reading through it. I have read that I can obtain a copy of his records from Wellington Barracks. Is that still the case as I don't work too far from there. I would be grateful for any more info if anyone has any. I don't know when he enlisted so not sure how early the events included him and also not sure yet where he was when captured. Regards
Hello Mike The Grenadier Guards transferred their records to MOD. You will now have to apply to them. See this link Request records of deceased service personnel Thanks for sharing photo - so many names, so few faces to go with them.
Thank you. I was under the impression he had been in Italy fighting. I remember him telling me as a child that he marched through Italy but I suppose that could have been as a prisoner.
Mike. Anzio was 1 Inf Div's first operation on the Italian mainland. They had had the job of clearing the island of Pantelleria between Sicily and Tunisia but it was largely empty. That he survived the initial landings is a blessing. The the first six weeks, which were by far the most violent, 5 GREN GDS were engaged for little more than a fortnight – 25 Jan-10 Feb 44, but in that time lost 29 of their 35 Offrs, nine of whom were killed including a CO, 12 were wounded and 8 taken prisoner. The Bn lost 577 of their 785 ORs: 52 of whom were killed, 222 wounded and 303 were missing. They had four COs in three weeks – one was only in command for 27.5 hours before he was killed. This gives some indication of the violence of the opening stages of the Anzio campaign. Once the German had run out of steam in mid-Mar 44, 5 GREN GDS settled down in the wadis along with everyone else. Regards Frank
