My father in law passed away September 14 at the age of 92 he was trained at Lockerbie , served in Tunisia Italy & ended the war fighting the communists in Greece we have some of his memorable from those days letters home his stripes and div patches which we treasure, He was at Cassino and one of the memories he spoke about was 13 Troop helping to erect the Amazon Bridge I contacted the RE museum to find out if they had any information on the Recce involvement in building the only bridge to survive the battle but they replied with the RE companies that were involved but had no information about 13 Assault Troop If anyone is interested in anything else dad spoke of or what he wrote home to his family we would be happy to share it with you and keep his history alive Shanks
Shanks, Hello and welcome to the forum. Very sorry to hear of the passing of your father. RIP. My late father was also with the 4th Reconnaissance Regt and was also sent to Greece direct from the Front in Italy. On Christmas Eve 1944 he was pulled out of the line and taken to Toranto where they were loaded onto LCT's and shipped off to Greece. Demobbed end of Summer 1947. I will check the 4th Recce Diaries that I posted and see if I can turn up anything on AMAZON, but I was always under the impression that Amazon bridge was a purely Royal Engineers project. Feel free to look through the War diaries held on the forum as they make interesting reading. Regards Tom
Shanks, Just taken a look at the War Diaries for the dates Amazon bridge was built and no mention of Recce Presence there as far as I can see. http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/24853-4th-reconnaissance-regiment-war-diaries/?hl=+4th%20+recce%20+war%20+diaries Regards Tom
Shanks welcome to the forum, great to have another Recce on board. Also very sorry to hear of the passing of your father-in-law My late father was with 56 Recce. By all means post anything about your father-in-law. Cheers Paul
Shanks. I have crawled all over information about Amazon Bridge for nearly a decade and I have never seen anything that mentions elements of 4 Recce Regt. The only Royal Armoured Corps involvement was a tank from 17/21L which was needed to push the bridge into place when the Royal Engineers' bulldozer conked out. The only other non-Royal Engineer involvement were some troops from 2 Northumberland Fusiliers who were used to hump bridge panels. It would have been logical for 4 Recce Regt to have been first across but on this occasion they were not. 17/21L went first followed by 16/5L. Regards Frank
Shanks. I checked the 4 Recce Regt War Diaries for the period of Amazon Bridge's construction - 11-13 May 44. 4 Recce Regt appears to have been in and around the Railway Station. That is some way from Amazon. Regards Frank
Hi guys thanks for the prompt reply, it appears from what Dad said that his troop had the same duties as the NFs carrying bridge parts for the engineers,he was also at the Railway station ,his troop were in a repair pit in the loco shad as he put it concrete walls all around and a great big railway engine on top, Perhaps the bridge building was a case of "What are you blokes doing ,nothing to do ,come with me?"nothing recorded nothing written down ,just Dad reading it in a book and turning down the corner of the page and saying I was there. On his 90th birthday we took him to Bovington to have a look at the Whites scout car they have on display, I asked one of the staff if he could sit in it or have a look inside the answere was no there is a health hazard. Because the clocks and dials are painted with radioactive paint . Among his papers we found a type written letter quoted in Only the enemy in front commending 4th Recces assault troop on thier patrolling abilities maybe for Dad to have a copy of the original meant that the letter was referring to his troop. I don't have the letter to hand but one of his letters home was from Egypt and they had just been detailed to off load a coal ship and at the end he says it was great to swim in the sea and wash all the dust off Thanks again guys now I've this site I will keep in touch Shanks
Now I'm no expert on these vehicles but I wonder if that's the same radioactive paint they use on watches, compasses today so they glow in the dark? I can't help feeling that is a standard reply to put people off rather than letting some old chap have a trip down memory lane and his family to get some excellent photo's. Even if it is radioactive, he's over 90! It's not like his life is going to be cut short by it ! Rant over
Andy, I do believe that you are correct with your assumption. Certainly not a rant but more of an observation Regards Tom
