106 (Lancashire Hussars) LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery : 26/04/1941 - 27/04/1941

Hi,
My uncle was killed "At Sea Crete" between 26 & 27 April 1941 whilst serving with the 106 (The Lancashire Hussars) Lt AA Regt RA. I would be grateful if anyone could advise where I could find out more information on the circumstances of his death such as ship details, reasons for being "at sea" etc. Thanks, John

 

Welcome J Stirling

Can you give us his full name, so we can look on the CWGC website.

Robert

 

Hi John and welcome to the forum.....I'm sure some of us will be able to help you.

Andy

 

Thanks for the quick responses. His name is David Stirling and his rank / service number was Gunner / 967485.

 

J Stirling

This is your Uncle, but the memorial does not mention the ship. More digging required. Maybe one of our Naval experts can suss which ships went down on that date.

Name:STIRLING, DAVID
Initials: D
Nationality:United Kingdom
Rank:Gunner
Regiment/Service:Royal Artillery
Unit Text:106 (The Lancashire Hussars) Lt. A.A. Regt.
Age:21
Date of Death:between 26/04/1941 and 27/04/1941
Service No:967485
Additional information:Son of William and Agnes Stirling, of Tarbolton, Ayrshire.
Casualty Type:Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference:Face 3.
Memorial:ATHENS MEMORIAL

 

John,

Your uncle is remembered here:

The Athens Memorial, Greece. Courtesy of the CWGC.

 

Ramacal - thanks for the useful info. Regards, John

 

Drew - thanks for the photo.

 

John

This link will tell you of naval information on the 26th and 27th April 1941. Scroll down to the date required.

1 April, Tuesday

It looks as though HMS Diamond, Wryneck were all lost with heavy casualties. Another part of this site gives you the naval ratings names but no others. The 2 destroyers were sunk during the evacuation of Crete with heavy losses and it might be difficult to pinpoint which of these ships your Uncle's Regiment was on. Several other Greek vessels appear to have been sunk as well.

Robert

 

Crete wasn't invaded unti May so I suspect from a quick bit of digging he may have been involved in Operation Demon which started around the 24/25th April. Evacuating troops from Greece (Two Inf and two Armd Div's). Some went to Crete under Operation Scorcher.

Regards
Andy

 

Hello John. I have just looked up the 106th LAA in Brig. Routledge's 'Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914-55'. They were on mainland Greece and not Crete. The first moves took place in November 1940 in the establishment of a base at Piraeus, the port of Athens...
By early 1941, the base and supply organisation at Piraus was functioning. HQ 2nd HAA Regiment arrived to take command of AA units in February and to the three original batteries (20th/2nd HAA, 154th/52nd & 122nd/13th LAA) were added two more; 16th/2nd HAA and 155th/52nd LAA together with 106th LAA Regiment, which had been hastily converted from another role, and given 36 X 20mm Breda guns.

106th LAA were deployed in the southern area during the retreat and evacuation, one troop of the 106th remaining as rearguard around Larissa. It was decided that the entire 'W' force were to be evacuated together and the port chosen was right at the foot of the Peloponnese at Kalamata. The depleted guns of the 106th still covering the withdrawl. On the 26th April, as the main body cleared Athens, the 106th were given orders to destroy their remaining guns. The AA detachments were armed only with a few rifles and a machine-gun each and, in the unequal struggle, their resistance was quickly overcome. Although many were taken prisoner, others escaped in the confusion and a party of about 130 reached the shore where it was rescued by HMS Orion.

 

26 April 1941. HMS Orion arrived at Nauplia, Southern Greece to evacuate troops.

27 April 1941. HMS Orion arrived at Suda Bay, Crete and disembarked troops.



Sourced from 1939 - 1945 (3)

I guess the next key would be to try and figure out if he died on the ship as a result of wounds received of if he died on the Greek mainland. The Memorial in Greece I guess could suggest the later.

John do you have or have you thought about applying for your uncles service records?

Regards
Andy

 

Bodston - thanks for the useful info _ i will see if I can find out any more through the internet.
Andy - no I do not have his service records - do you know where I would write to for copies?

thanks again, John

 

John,

Here's the form:

http://www.veterans-uk.info/pdfs/service_records/army_kinship.pdf

 

106th LAA Regiment, which had been hastily converted from another role, and given 36 X 20mm Breda guns.

I was curious to find out what they had been converted from..

106 LAA Regiment had been 106 Royal Horse Artillery, active in the desert with 37mm Bofors AT guns Portee on 15cwt trucks. So, not aversed to rearguard actions and hit and run tactics.

 

Welcome Dave,
H.M.S. Diamond and H.M.S. Wryneck previously mentioned were sunk after picking up survivors from S.S. Slamat and S.S.Pennland.

There is further information regarding enquiries made into the Casualties from all four ships.

Brian

 

I have some further information taken from an old HMSO paperback 'The Campaign in Greece and Crete', published in 1942.
On April 26th (HMS) Calcutta returned to Greece. "I took three merchantmen with me," said the Captain, and made for Navplion. The rest of the ships in my convoy, with escorting destroyers, went to Raftis and another fishing port Rafina. At four that afternoon, after we had separated, we had a sharp attack from eighteen JU 87's and 88's attacking in two waves of nine machines. They hit one of my transports in the engine room, disabling her, while a second vessel was hit by a small bomb but not badly damaged. When it was over I ordered the destroyer Griffin to stand by the damaged transport, which was towed into port. With the other two I arrived at Navplion about 10 o'clock.. I took 960 men aboard while the destroyers Hotspur and Isis took 500 and 400. So far the weather had been perfect, but that night the wind got up with a choppy sea which made boat work more difficult. The cruisers Orion and Perth, with the destroyer Stuart appeared before midnight and embarked men from Tolon. These ships took on about 2,500 men. Further west the cruiser Phoebe, at the head of another group was evacuating men from Kalamata. I was anxious to be going, as the Germans had occupied the aerodrome at Argos a few miles north of Navplion."
"At seven o'clock in the morning, April 27th, bombers came over and did not leave us until 10 a.m. We were shooting so accurately that again and again we put them off. About 7.15 one transport was hit and began sinking. I ordered the Diamond alongside to take off troops, and about 9 a.m. three more destroyers, the Wryneck, Vampire and Voyager, joined us in the battle with the dive-bombers, so I detached the Wryneck to help with the rescue work. In that three hours the Calcutta fired about 1,200 rounds of 4" shells and many thousand rounds of pom-pom and machine-gun ammunition. The Coventry came out to relive me, enabling me to disembark them and return to the convoy in the afternoon. One more transport was sunk, but we got all the survivors safely ashore. Then with fourteen vessels we set out and arrived without further incident yesterday."
Altogether on the night of April 26th-27th, 16,000 men of the Imperial forces were withdrawn from Greece. Over 8,000 of these were taken off from the Kalamata area. The destroyers Diamond and Wryneck which, as stated by the Captain of the Calcutta, had taken off survivors from the burning transport, were themselves hit by bombs and both were sunk. The Diamond had about 600 men from the transport onboard and the Wryneck 100. The transport itself had been sunk with a torpedo from the Diamond. Some fifty survivors from the Diamond and Wryneck were picked up. The survivors from these destroyers were repeatedly attacked by machine-gun fire from German aircraft while they were in the water.

more here: The sinking of the Slamat

 

Cheers guy's, one of my guys in the same regiment was killed in what looks to be the same incident


In Memory of
Gunner ARTHUR BLUNDELL TAYLOR

902390, 106 (The Lancashire Hussars) Lt A.A. Regt., Royal Artillery
who died age 21
between 26 April 1941 and 27 April 1941
Son of Stanley and Ann Taylor, of Widnes, Lancashire.
Remembered with honour
ATHENS MEMORIAL

 

Panel 3 at the Athens Memorial, containing the incription for D Stirling and A.B. Taylor

 

my uncle is also on this memorial with the 106th.
Jones, John Eric. he was one of five brothers that served during WW2.
thank u for including this photo. so many brave men.

3771954 Gunner Eric JONES, 106 LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery: 26/04/1941 - 27/04/1941