14246910 Private Alastair Carnegie HARDIE, 10th Highland Light Infantry: 02/05/1945

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by CL1, May 2, 2017.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Remembering Today

    Casualty Details | CWGC
    HARDIE, ALASTAIR CARNEGIE

    Rank: Private
    Service No: 14246910
    Regiment/Service: 10th Bn. Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment)
    Date of Death: 02/05/1945
    Age: 21
    Cemetery: HAMBURG CEMETERY
    Grave Reference: 4A. O. 13.
    Additional Information: Son of Harry Davidson Hardie and Isabella Carnegie Hardie, of Kirriemuir, Angus.
    Personal Inscription: LOVED AND FOR EVER REMEMBERED
     
  2. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

  3. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    [​IMG]

    Alastair Carnegie Hardie
    Birth: Abt 1921 - Angus, Scotland
    Death: 2 May 1945 - Germany

    https://www.backtonormandy.org/personal-stories/655-alastair-hardy.html

    An extract - I'm sure Fred wont mind
    This was followed about a week later by a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Noble the Commanding Officer of the 10th Battalion of the HLI. His is a beautifully handwritten and sincere note written while the Battalion was still in Germany – it is worth repeating in full – he wrote ‘Dear Mrs Hardie, I wish to express on my own behalf and in the name of all the Officers and men of this Battalion, deepest sympathy with you in the very sad loss which you have sustained. Your son gave his life on 2nd May making the supreme sacrifice and doing his duty faithfully to the end. We join you in your mourning and trust that you will be sustained by the knowledge that he has achieved much in the making of these victories. Yours very sincerely F B B Noble – 10th Ba. The H.L.I.’
    Both these letters gave some solace to the grieving parents and family. They were real and human and written by people who knew their son and who were with him at the end. And interestingly the Chaplain wrote to Bella again in September 1945 following a visit made by a member of the Battalion to 63 Knowehead. He had obviously reported back to the Chaplain that Bella was struggling to come to terms with her loss and was consumed by the thought that Alastair had suffered as he was dying. David Dunlop wrote on 7 September 1945 ‘I should just like you to know that we are thinking of you in your great sorrow and loss. It must be terrible for you to bear it and so difficult to understand it. It is the evil of men that make wars and it is the power of God that alone can sustain us and help us. You must not think that your son suffered. I am quite sure that he did not’
    This did much to assuage Bella’s anxieties – she thought that Dunlop was with Alastair as he died so would know whether he had died in pain. But later she received a letter from a Sgt Fyffe of the 10th Battalion which enclosed a letter he had received from Chaplain Dunlop about the death of Alastair Hardie. In this letter to Sgt Fyffe Padre Dunlop gave more details of the death of Alastair. He wrote to Fyffe ‘It was really on our last day of action. I do not know exactly how he was killed – I think it was enemy machine gun bullets but his body was brought from his company to me and I buried him in the little cemetery beside the church at Worth not far from Hohenhorn which is quite near to Hamburg. We marked the grave with a cross and put some flowers on it. I think his grave will be the only soldier’s one in the cemetery. A Pte Stewart of Brechin who knew Pte Hardie and helped to care for his grave will visit his people when he is on leave soon.’

    TD
     
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  4. ClankyPencil

    ClankyPencil Senior Member

    Noted in the book '10th Highland Light Infantry: Campaign in Europe 1944-45' as being in 'B' Company and 'Killed, Hohenhorn, 2nd May, 1945'

    Also 10th HLI War Diary for that time below:

    10HLI - May 01.JPG 10HLI - May 02.JPG 10HLI - May 03.JPG
     
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  5. ClankyPencil

    ClankyPencil Senior Member

    Appears that Alastair Hardie was likely killed quite early in the day, at the beginning of the days engagements.

    Another thread here, about another soldier from that same unit who was killed later on that day by a sniper.
     

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