War Diary, 2/7 Queen's Royal Regiment, Anzio

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by dave500, Jan 15, 2011.

  1. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    Gentlemen,

    The War Diaries of the 2/7 Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment
    for February and March 1944 and the History of the 56th
    (London) Division at Anzio, 17 February - 10 March 1944, will
    be available for download for a limited time.

    I paid Bob O'Hara of Kew

    Public Record Research of military history and genealogy at The National Archives, Kew, London.

    a reasonably modest fee to research and copy the War Diary of
    the 2/7 Queen's Royal Regiment and the same for the 56th Infantry Division for
    February and March 1944. The 2/7 Queen's relieved 2nd Battalion,
    157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, on 21-22 February during the Battle of the Caves. I am the Moderator of the 45th Infantry Division
    Yahoo Group and have acquired many records of the Division in 15 trips to the U.S. NARA II, College Park, MD.

    Anzio Beachhead: VI Corps Holds The Beachhead (20 February-3 March)

    The zip file is 170 megabytes and took five minutes to download.

    You need to save this on your hard drive and extract
    the JPEGS before you can view them.

    The researcher at Kew told me "the original War Diary of the 2/7 Queen's
    Regiment for the month of February 1944 appears to have been lost and has been replaced by a photocopy which is in white type on a black background.
    Consequently, the document was difficult to photograph."

    The photos of the photocopies are not too bad. Zooming in via Windows Picture
    and Fax Viewer in Windows Explorer, I could read the text without too much
    difficulty.

    The zip file can be downloaded here:

    YouSendIt: Online File Sharing and collaboration with FTP Replacement - Send Large Files and Email Attachments with Managed File Transfer Solution



    Dave
     
    CL1, sol, Paul Reed and 2 others like this.
  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Dave welcome to the forum and many thanks for sharing what must have cost you a penny or two.

    An excellent first post.
    Regards
    Diane
     
  3. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Good Man Dave, you're a fine fella in my book for sharing these.
     
  4. Andreas

    Andreas Working on two books

    Many thanks Dave!

    All the best

    Andreas
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi Dave,

    Some one told me tonight a diary had been posted. Well done, I have a rough idea how expensive they can be so that speaks volumes that you've posted it for free.

    Got any BEF ones ;)

    Only joking :D

    Regards
    Andy
     
  6. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Top marks for sharing that.
     
  7. Rotherfield

    Rotherfield Senior Member

    Hi Dave
    Interesting reading the American version of Anzio, I have the History of the 2/7th Queens 1939/46 by Roy Bullen as well as the 2/5th Queens, urgently need to find the 2/6th Queens history any ideas? The final count of those who returned from the battle of the caves was including the C.O.and 17 other ranks while the casualties during the fighting of 22/24 February totalled 362 Officers and men killed wounded or missing, fortunately many of those reported missing ended up P.O.W
    Regards
    Mike (Rotherfield)
     
  8. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    Thank you, Diane, Adam, et al.

    I believe that resources such as these ought to be shared.

    Mike, if you are interested, I can provide the After Action Report of
    the 157th Infantry Regiment and the Operation's Report of the 45th
    Infantry Division for February 1944, which will give you additional
    insight into the American experience at Anzio. I'm afraid I have no
    information on the History of 2/6th Queens.


    Dave
     
  9. Queensman3348

    Queensman3348 Junior Member

    Many, many thanks for sharing this Dave.
    I regularly meet veterans from the 2/7th and they just amaze me when they talk about what they got involved with.

    One of the Officers told me he had to leave his CO hanging on the barbwire on the way back from the caves as he wouldn't let him hang back to get him untangled, he just wanted him to get his troops back.
     
  10. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    It appears that tomorrow, 28 January, will be the last day the file will be available
    for download.


    Dave
     
  11. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    I have converted the 26 page (JPEG) WD of the 56th (London)
    Division at Anzio, 17 February - 10 March 1944 to a 2 part
    pdf. Each part is approx. 7.5 megabytes, so it is capable of
    being emailed and received by most users.

    The other two WDs are too large to be converted to pdf.


    Dave
     
    Pieter F and dbf like this.
  12. lisaladore

    lisaladore Junior Member

    Dear Dave,
    I joined this site in hopes to find more info. regarding my uncle who served and was wounded at Anzio? I haven't been able to find any records for him?
    Any suggestions? I'm new to this? His name was John Bracco.
    Thank you,
    Lisa LaDore
     
  13. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi Lisa and welcome.

    Do you know if he served in 2/7 Battalion Queen's or just in Anzio?

    Regards
    Andy
     
  14. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    I recently established a free account with Dropbox.com, which
    allows me to upload and download very large files.

    This morning, I have uploaded two of the three War Diaries.

    Here is the link to the WD of the 56th (London) Division for
    Feb. 1944. It is 14.2 megabytes.

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/85766695/56th%20Division%2C%20Feb%201944.pdf

    And the link for the Feb. 1944 WD of 2/7 Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment.
    It is 86.5 megabytes.

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/85766695/War%20Diary%202%207%20Queens%20Royal%20Rgmt%2C%20Feb%201944.pdf

    I will post the March 1944 WD of 2/7 Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment as
    soon as I create the pdf.

    I think you need to create a Dropbox account to access these files.

    https://www.dropbox.com/home#!/home

    Cheers.


    Dave
     
  15. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

  16. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Hi Dave,

    I know this is well out of date but I'll ask anyway. I'm researching the men on my local war memorial and one of those named died in Italy on the 28th Sept 1944 whilst serving with the 2/7th Bn. The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey). I have been able to find very little information out about him but I wondered if you had access to the unit war diary for the days leading up to his death?

    Regards

    Jeff
     
  17. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    jjrc1991

    Whilest I don't have the war diary ..but I do have the maps from the official History of the Canadians and in the section which deals with that area AFTER Rimini was captured on the 23rd September - I note that on the 25th September

    the 56th Division - with the 2/7 west surreys took over from the 1st Armoured Division at Santarchangelo - fight their away through to Savignano and were on their way to San Mauro on the 27/28 th Sept when the Canadians

    took over once more and I suspect that is where your friend was killed between Savignano and San Mauro...

    With a good map of Italy you can find Rimini on the NE coast head West on Hwy 9 to Santarcangelo then North to Savignano and San Mauro- probably buried at either Cesena or Coriano Ridge....many units were involved in th battles

    for Cesena and the Savio River (where Smokey Smith of the Seaforths of Canada won his V.C.) - such as 1st & 5th Canadian - 10th Indian - British 46th - 56th - 4th- 1st Armoured - 2nd New Zealand Divisions were all involved

    Hope this helps try CWGC for his grave etc

    Cheers
     
  18. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Thanks very much Tom. Very much appreciated.
     
  19. Ref Cpl James Carr .Wonder if you know of any 2/7 Queens Regiment veterans who were in Italy ie Anzio
     
  20. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Hello again,

    Two years on and still researching for my book on the men of my local war memorial (WW2)!

    I'm looking at the man who served with the 2/7th and I wondered if anyone can shed some light for me. I know that the 2/7th were at Dunkirk but I don't believe my man was there. He joined later I think. But I wondered if anyone knows where the 2/7th went on their return from France in 1940 - My man married in Prittlewell, Essex in August 1942 and I know there was a military camp there so I am assuming that his unit was also there? Any ideas?

    Jeff
     

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