Can anyone please help. I am researching my son in law's grandfathers war service in 1st Battalion Scots Guards, he went to Italy sometime after 11 March 1945 when he returned from his embarkation leave. My son in law lives in New Zealand so doesn't have access to UK records. I will be going to National Archives later in this year to further my research into my uncle a Lancaster bomb aimer KIA January 1945 so I will have an opportunity to copy the war diary WO 170/4981 1 Scots Guards 1945 January - December. However in the meantime does anyone have an information on what 1st Battalion Scots Guards were doing in Italy from mid March 1945 till the end of the war
If you can get hold of a copy of their regimental history: The Scots Guards 1919 - 1955; David Erskine, (Pages 296 - 319) covers 1st Battalion SG's movements etc, from February to December 1945. SCOTS GUARDS 1919-1955 - Naval & Military Press
1 SG were part of 24 Guards Brigade who were, at that time in the war, attached to 56 Infantry Division. They were involved in the Final Offensive in Apr 45 - initially taking over from 2 Commando Brigade in the Lake Commachio area above Ravenna and then in the push west into the Argenta Gap. They did some great work clearing Germans out of the southern boundaries of Lake Commachio and then getting across the Fosse Marina into the Gap itself. Regards Frank
