14416229 Peter Oliver William ELY, 7 Parachute Regiment - My Uncle Killed / MIA

Discussion in 'Airborne' started by BrianHall1963, Apr 14, 2020.

  1. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    My Uncle, Peter Oliver William Ely was killed MIA, Breville, Normandy on 10/08/44. Corporal Stanley Wood was wounded and captured on the same patrol. I have been advised to try to find any information about Corporal Wood prisoner of war details. They were both 7 Para. This would be big help in my search for Peters last reading place as if I can find out the German unit that captured it treated him then I could look into the German units archives to see if they had any information about burial sites.
     
  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    For record:
    Casualty
    Private ELY, PETER OLIVER WILLIAM
    Service Number 14416229
    Died 10/08/1944
    Aged 19
    7th Bn. The Parachute Regiment, A.A.C.
    Son of Jack and Ethel Ely, of Highworth, Wiltshire.

    Commemorated at BAYEUX MEMORIAL
    Location: Calvados, France
    Number of casualties: 1803
    Cemetery/memorial reference: Panel 18, Column 1.
     
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  3. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    Welcome to the forum. Hopefully an airborne expert will be along to tell you the name of the German unit that 7 Para were facing 10th August 1944. Have you searched the internet for military history books about 7 Para/6th Airborne in Normandy? There must be some out there.

    For the information of others here is his CWGC record showing he is recorded on Bayeux Memorial to the missing.

    Casualty

    Hopefully a member will post the official casualty lists details for Corporal Wood so you have an Army service number.

    Once you have that you could apply for his details via Red Cross in Switzerland on 25th May -

    Requests for information about people held during Spanish Civil War or Second World War: Quarterly limit reached

    Richard Todd - the British actor - also served with 7 Para in Normandy. He left an audio record at IWM that may be worth listening to so you get an insight into your uncle's experiences -

    Todd, Richard Andrew Palethorpe (Oral history)

    A search for 7 Para in the forum search engine turns up various topics that you might wish to look at -

    http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/5744052/&q=7th.+Battalion+parachute+regiment&o=relevance

    Good Luck

    Steve
     
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  4. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    Both 14416229 Ely and 14632283 Wood are reported on the casualty lists as 'missing believed wounded' 10/8/44. Ely is subsequently reported as 'presumed died of wounds'. Wood is subsequently reported as 'since located'. Other 7 Para reported alongside Ely and Wood as 'missing believed wounded' on the same date are:

    2184150 Pte A L Burden (later reported 'presumed died of wounds')
    Casualty

    14421370 Pte J D Webster (later reported 'killed in action')
    Casualty

    None of the four are reported as POW.

    Stanley Charles Wood was enlisted into the General Service Corps, transferred to the East Surrey Regt 16/7/43 and then to AAC 6/10/43.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2020
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  5. ltdan

    ltdan Nietenzähler

    War Diary 7th parachute Bn 7th Parachute Battalion

    10th August 1944
    Place: Hauger

    0215 - C Coy patrol reports in. Two men missing.
    0425 - Two missing men of patrol report in.
    0830 - Bde Comd visits bn.
    1515 - Patrol goes out.
    1845 - CO holds O Group.
    2230 - Fighting patrol under Lt Howard goes out.
    2240 - A/C heard (? enemy) flying overhead NE/SW. One A/C dropped row of flares some distance NE of Bn posns. One a/c dropped red flare. A/C caught in searchlight beam intersections for about [entry ends].

    11th August 1944
    Place: Hauger

    0305 - Enemy firing heard to left of outpost.
    0330 - Four men of patrol (Sjt Padly and 3) reported in. Sjt and two of this party wounded. (One returned for duty) Lt Howard and four ORs missing. Patrol was machine gunned by enemy at close range from 146755. This patrol not dressed in airborne eqpt.
    0535 - Six medical personnel reported in.
    0540 - Two bren teams reported in.
    0630 - Patrol went out under Sjt Owen C Coy 142755, to try to locate any of missing who might be wounded and trying to get back. This party was relieved at 0815 hrs by a sec of B Coy.
    0815 - Sjt Norman of B Coy together with IO patrolled to try and locate missing personnel. Penetrated to 146753 and NORTH to 145754 and later observed from area of small hut 145755. Nothing was located and patrol returned at 1200 hrs. Relieving patrol under Sjt Green was mortared at 143754 and sustained two cas, one wounded and one slightly wounded. At 1000 hrs CO attended patrol conference at Bde HQ.
    1900 - Bde Comd visited bn. During the night, bn was not to any patrolling but 12 Bn were sending out standing patrols to 143754, 144755, 145756, Capt Archdale joined C Coy from A. During the day rfts arrived from England (13 ORs under Major Taylor J.N., M.C). A large proportion of these were specialists and were absorbed into HQ Coy. They were all residues
     
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  6. ltdan

    ltdan Nietenzähler

    Wouldn´t expect a trace from that side. Whatever of documents survived the Falaise carnage was incinerated in 1945
    But if date and location mentioned above correct I´ll try a Q&D research for German units
    regards
    Olli
     
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  7. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    Good evening Olli my uncle was killed alongside Lt Howard, anything you could find would greatly help my search regards Brian
     
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  8. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    For what little it may add, Private Webster was located and is buried in Ranville War Cemetery
    It looks as if there was a mass grave located on Map Pont l'Eveque GS4250 Sheet 8F/1 1/50.000 497005
    The Concentration tab on the CWGC Webster details show a range of men from 7, 12 and 13 Para together with a mix of other units (may also be Para but with original unit insignia?). It may be worth checking if any of the adjacent burials to the graves detailed are for Known Unto God?
    Lt Howard wasn't identified either, so is yet another Name on the Bayeux Memorial.

    Perhaps one of our WW2 Map experts might be able to deduce where the CWGC initial burial site was. The CWGC may also have records of KUG's recovered from near or at that Map reference. Worth an ask, with a cluster of men, all known to have been close to Square 146755, which may be the same or near to 497005 on the 1/50,000 Map.

    It seems these men, including Olli, were caught in a burst of machine gun fire, but what happened then is as yet unknown, and may remain so unless something fresh turns up.
     
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  9. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    Thanks
    thank you very much for your information and time this will all help my search will keep you all posted with my progress with all of your help it might come sooner regards Brian
     
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  10. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    Private Webster was found behind a German Field Hospital and then removed after the end of the war , I will look up the location of the hospital and post it regards Brian
     
  11. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    On the same date Sjt. W.H. Padley (4694138), Pte. R.J. Walls (5682630) & Pte. F.W. Adams (14520507) were all wounded; possibly on the same patrol.

    Sjt. J.E. Fear (5678305) was wounded on the 11th August 1944.

    Lt. John Howard (307944) of the Essex regiment was an reinforcement officer along with Canadians Lt Patterson & Pape.

    Wood may have been captured but did not make it to a camp as he has no POW number it states he was located so assume he was wounded and repatriated. Howard's army record may hold details on his missing status.
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2020
  12. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    Middle square 146755 shows where the patrol was on Map Sheet 7F/2 France 1:50,000
     

    Attached Files:

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  13. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    Hello Brian! Glad to see you joined this forum. I did say there’s a lot of knowledgable people here with different angles of expertise.
    Fingers crossed for some fresh info.

    Alex.
     
  14. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    Thanks for that map, brithm, and as the 7 Para War Diary mentions "Hauger" as their location, it would seem to correlate to the Chateau du Hameau HAUGER, which is about midawy between the coast/estuary of the Orne and Pegasus Bridge, and is on the east bank. The Chateau is midway between and La Perruque and Hameau La Rue. Brithm's map shows Le Bas de Breville which looks to be about a kilometer due east of Hameau La Rue. That's the probable direction of any offensive patrols to probe the German defences for any weak spot to break out of the bridgehead.

    The closest I could find for any WW2 casualties is in Breville itself, just 2 both identified and both killed on 12 June.
    Ranville does have 90 unidentified graves, so it's a possibility that he might be one of those.
     
  15. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    Pvt,s Webster was buried at the rear of St.Haymer Chateau it’s about a 30 minute drive away from patrol area . Cpl Woods ended up in temporary hospital near Brussels and the Germans retreating left them behind , Hope this answers some questions . Good evening Alex thanks for your help
     
  16. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    I’ve become friends with an old French guy who has told me there where 200 Russians in the village where the patrol took place
     
  17. Ludo68000

    Ludo68000 6th Airborne D-Day

    Dear Brian,

    John David WEBSTER was initally buried at St Hymer (near Pont L'Evêque) where there was a German Hospital (please look at the pictures)
    The men seriously wounded on the battlefield were taken (by the Germans) there, and some of them died of their wounds and were buried in a temporary cemetery nearby.
    32 men of 6th Airborne Division were buried at St Hymer before being transfered to Ranville War Cemetery in 1945 (26/10/1945 and 29/10/1945)
     

    Attached Files:

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  18. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    Thanks Ludo, 4 men where killed from that patrol and 3 bodies where missing my French friend found a body 2 years after the war so now there are two left to find , so hopefully with German records this might narrow our search thanks for your info regards Brian
     
  19. BrianHall1963

    BrianHall1963 Well-Known Member

    I think the way to take this another step forward would be information about the German units around the patrol date
     
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  20. ltdan

    ltdan Nietenzähler

    Update:
    The German unit in question was 346.Infanterie-Division. As expected documents are very scarce: Everything stored at Bundesarchiv ends September 1943.
    Also tried germandocsinrussia.com but unfortunately there is absolutely nothing.

    But there´s an account about the fightings there written for the US Historical Division in 1946, available here:
    Fold3 Browse
    This should be the most detailled information available but regarding your uncle I wouldn´t expect usable informations

    Either you have to accept the sad fact your uncle is most likely one of the unknown buried soldiers - or you should prepare for a VERY strenous research.
    To get an idea of such undertaking: Long March POW Casualty 1945: John Antony Ronald Coulthard, Stalag XXA, Thorn
    If you´re determined to wage such an "adventure" I could offer some assistance - but this may be of limited nature
    best regards
    Olli
     
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