Look back to Big Battles over Easter

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by Uncle Target, Apr 11, 2022.

  1. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Considering the current media attention regarding Big Battles around Easter.
    During the run up to and over the weekend of Easter 1943 the final battles for Tunisia were raging in the hills overlooking the Medjez Plain.
    This was the turning point in which the Allies defeated the otherwise "undefeatable" German Forces which included the renowned Afrika Corps, opening the door to Tunis and onward across the sea to Europe.
    Many units were involved from the Allied !st Army and the 8th. Here is a comment by Major DCL Shepherd Battery Commander 266 Bty. 67th Field Regt in the British 1st Infantry Division who was awarded an MiD for this and an MC later at Anzio.

    Perhaps others on the forum might like to add to the thread regarding this or other Big Battles which took place over Easter.

    "I forget if I told you previously of two experiences I had during the Big Battle at Easter".

    The most vivid was on the morning when I visited my observation post which was a small trench scraped in the rock about 2ft 6 inches deep and about 7 feet long.
    Unfortunately it had been sited to face one way but owing to a change in the front the enemy were able to fire up the length of it, making it extremely unhealthy. It was in full view but had to be used as being the only possible viewpoint. They fired at it continuously so that I had three good people shell shocked out of it on Good Friday.
    On Easter Sunday they started when I was there, as there was not enough room in the main hole,
    I lay in a subsidiary part at the end. The fire came I think from a tank and from my knowledge of artillery fire I realised that they had us taped.
    It was quite terrifying and I became convinced it was the end.
    My spectacles were blown off and buried and my map and glasses, by one which landed on the edge.
    I had called for a smoke screen from my own guns to cover us but the telephone wire to the wireless had been cut
    and it was impossible to do anything about it.
    I felt terrible and almost unconsciously I prayed and once, I became quite careless and detached and at peace and could wait quite callously (for the end).
    Thanks to the good common sense of Tom Averill who realised the situation from a scrappy wireless message, smoke arrived in great quantities and all was well.

    It was in this OP on Good Friday 1943 that L/Bdr Marriner earned a Military Medal for his courage in repairing the telephone wires while under fire sixteen times so that the OP could function.
     
    4jonboy and Chris C like this.
  2. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Wow, talk about a hair raising account.
     
  3. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    From the 56 Recce war diary, April 25th 1943 :).

    The chief event of the day was the capture of LONGSTOP HILL which was made possible by 38 Irish Inf Bde taking HEIDOUS and DJEBEL TANNGOUCHA.

    Lesley
     
    Chris C and CL1 like this.
  4. bexley84

    bexley84 Well-Known Member

    In 1943, as mentioned , Easter Sunday was on 25th April, the latest it could ever possibly be - and the last time on that date up to the current day (next time for a 25th April Easter Sunday is in 2038).

    My father, Edmund, was with E Company 2nd Battalion London Irish Rifles, part of 38 (Irish) Brigade, on that day and 2 LIR's war diary entries for 25th April 1943 noted: the following:
    1730 E Company advance on to Heidous and Sandy Ridge.
    1900 E Company established.


    My father's own visceral memory of that Easter Sunday stayed with him for the rest of his life:
    "E Company scrambled down from Bettiour and I followed immediately with my mules. It was eerie making our way by the light of the fires still burning in Heidous. As we entered it, all was silent and we passed three or four dead London Irishmen led by an NCO with their weapons in front of them. I saw a sergeant leaning back against the wall of a hut. I did not recognise him. He had no head.

    We had taken Heidous, home to the villagers who had scratched a living from the bare soil. It could not have been strategically important as it was only a small mound on the rear slope of Bettiour. Tanngoucha and Le Kefs had also all been taken. Longstop Hill, which commanded the road from Medjez el-Bab to Tebourba was captured after a hard fight."


    When myself and my brother visited Heidous (picture below) for the second time in March 2018, he was bitten by a farm dog.... perhaps it was carrying a message from the past.

    IMG_7921 (3).JPG
     
    Tom OBrien and 4jonboy like this.
  5. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    IMG_20190118_0001.jpg

    791794 L/Bdr Arthur Robbins of 96/97 Field Battery - 19th Field Regiment part of 1st Division, he was manning the wireless in an OP on 26th April with Captain John Greenwood Beach (126231) when they came under fire - Captain Beach was Killed and Robbins was wounded, at the start of June after several failed operations he had his leg amputated

    12.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2022
    CL1 and 4jonboy like this.
  6. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    3 More casualties of the Good Friday fighting

    1641.jpg
    Richard George Bailey of 3rd Welsh Guards, 32nd Independent Infantry Brigade killed by an AA shell near Argoub Sellah

    729 young.jpg
    Jack Young of 1st Scots Guards, 24th Guards Brigade who was injured by a shell blast to the chest at Medjez El Bab - he recovered and re-joined the battalion being taken POW at Anzio just under a year later

    1844 PARISSIEN.jpg

    Albert Ernest Frederick Parissien of 145th RAC, 21st Army Tank Brigade who was wounded near Enfidavelle - he suffered burns to the hands - after his recovery he was Staff in Military Prisons

    I have another 4 wounded in Tunisia in the following weeks
     
    4jonboy, CL1 and dbf like this.
  7. CL1

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

    Easter April 1944
    near Bremen
    92nd Light Anti Aircraft Regiment


    upload_2022-4-11_23-25-18.jpeg
     
  8. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Throughout history Easter is often the trigger for spring offensives, when the battlegrounds become firmer under foot.

    Easter Sunday13th April 1941
    Tobruk
    John Hurst Edmondson, was the first Australian to be awarded a Victoria Cross during World War II.
    On 13 April 1941, he took part in a bayonet charge against a party of German troops.
    Libya and the Siege of Tobruk 1941

    Easter Sunday 1st April1945
    Okinawa
    Battle of Okinawa - Wikipedia

    There must be more than these in WW2.
     
    4jonboy and CL1 like this.

Share This Page