Royal Sussex Regiment.

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by Private Godfrey, May 12, 2010.

  1. Private Godfrey

    Private Godfrey Junior Member

    Looking into my fathers wartime history and would like to know if anyone could throw more light on the subject or links. He joined the 4th Battalion which was a Territorial Battalion and was at Dunkirk between April/May 1940 from which he was evacuated to Dover then Tidworth.
    His Battalion was amalgamated into the 2nd Battalion following heavy losses in Egypt around Alamein and Benghazi I believe. In 1943-44 he was policing Russian convoys around Iraq/Iran and Palestine until demobbed at Tel-a-Gabir and sent home from Alexandria.
     
  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi and welcome to the forum.

    There was three Sussex Battalions (2nd, 4th and 5th) in France in 1940. All were in 133 Brigade within the 44th Division which was in III Corps.

    Do you know what battalion he was in ?

    Regards
    Andy
     
  3. CL1

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

    Welcome
     
  4. Private Godfrey

    Private Godfrey Junior Member

    Thank you for the welcome. He was in the the 4th battalion Royal Sussex but was a territorial until 1939 his first camp was Colchester in 1932 and drilled at the drill hall in Haywards Heath. He never really talked much about it when he was alive but I do remember him telling me how they just dumped everything at Dunkirk, and leaving his Bren gun behind.
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Have you applied for his service records and or the battalions war diaries?
     
  6. gaspirator

    gaspirator Member

    Not much but 133 Inf Bde as part of 44 Div were under command of 12 Corps (Home Forces) 1940-41.

    4 R. Sx. moved from Goole (Yorkshire) down to East Sussex on November 1st-2nd 1940.

    Companies as follows:

    A Coy at Pett
    B Coy at Baldslow (as reserve Coy)
    C Coy at Hastings
    D Coy at Bulverhythe
    HQ Coy also at Baldslow.

    Bn moved to Chiddingstone (Kent) on 24 Feb 1941.

    The war diary for this time is not the most detailed, but I can give you some more detail about the Bn's stay in East Sussex - any idea which company your father was in?

    - Pete
     
  7. Private Godfrey

    Private Godfrey Junior Member

    Some of those places actually tally, he was in Oxford, Gloucester, Pershaw, Goole then down to Hastings and around Penshurst, Tonbridge, ?Denham and Maidstone areas. 1945 he left Toulon, South of France by train to Dieppe then onto Newhaven and finished the war in Aldershot.
     
  8. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    4th Bn gets 2 mentions in the official History.
    pages 188 & 207.
    HyperWar: The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940 [Chapter XII]
    The 44th Division was on the flank immediately south of Hazebrouck. At the beginning of the day (27th() they held Morbecque and behind it a line running south-east to La Motte, south-west along the Nieppe Canal and again south-east on the road through the Forest of Nieppe towards St Venant. There was heavy fighting, and though Morbecque was lost, the enemy's attacks made no headway against this zigzag line.[12] But armoured columns pushed through the gap between Cassel and Hazebrouck and attacked our positions on a road (not shown on the situation map) which runs south-east from Eecke through Caestre, Strazeele, Vieux Berquin, and so to Estaires on the Lys. They attacked Eecke but were held off. They attacked Caestre and were driven back by the 4th Royal Sussex, who knocked out six tanks and captured their crews. They attacked the 5th Royal Sussex who were holding Strazeele and the road towards Estaires, and again were unsuccessful.[13] And in the afternoon they withdrew after an expensive and unprofitable day. Then the 131st Brigade (only arrived that morning from the eastern front) came in to strengthen this line, occupying Strzeele with a flank guard at Merris and the nearby Clyte Hill. What remained of the 23rd division was behind them but by now incapable of further fighting. The rest of the 46th Division was also now in the rearward area of the 48th Division.



    The 44th Division, in position on the canal running south-east from Hazebrouck and on the Caestre–Strazeele line, were subjected to heavy and continuous shelling and mortar fire all day, and were repeatedly attacked by infantry and tanks. Rouge Croix, between Caestre and Strazeele, was lost and retaken. Further south the road was crossed by the enemy, who took Clyte Hill, but that too was retaken. On the canal sector, La Motte was entered, recaptured, and lost again in a prolonged struggle; but though the Canal Line was eventually secured by the enemy, they made no substantial progress beyond it, and in the evening they abandoned the attack. Round both flanks of the divisional position, however, where there were no troops to oppose him, the enemy penetrated to Godewaersvelde on the north and Caudescure on the south.[19] The 2nd, 4th, and 5th Royal Suxxes, 1st/5th and 1st/6th Queen's, 1st, 4th and 5th Royal West Kent, a company of the 2nd Buffs and a detachment of Don Details suffered heavily in this day's fighting, and some battalions

    HyperWar: The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940 [Chapter XIII]
     
  9. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

  10. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  11. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    mvdv84 likes this.
  12. Private Godfrey

    Private Godfrey Junior Member

    I have uploaded two photos of the Royal Sussex 'somewhere in North Africa'. My father is amongst them. Don't know which year but they seem to be wearing the GS beret?...
     
  13. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I have uploaded two photos of the Royal Sussex 'somewhere in North Africa'. My father is amongst them. Don't know which year but they seem to be wearing the GS beret?...

    er , where are they?
    :unsure:
     
  14. Private Godfrey

    Private Godfrey Junior Member

    Kept reading about importance of watermarking and don't know how to do it.
     
  15. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Why do you want to watermark them?
     
  16. Dr Chris

    Dr Chris Member


    My late father-in-law was in 4th Royal Sussex at the time of Dunkirk. He wrote a journal on his return, and I will happily share it with you if after 10 years you are still following this site! I also included it as a chapter in "Roads to Dunkirk" which I published on Amazon last year - it was the cheapest way of getting some copies printed for the family, so I am not trying to improve my sales figures with this post!

    Chris J Smith
     
    Bazzil likes this.
  17. Snuffles

    Snuffles Member

    Chris you are now £3.99 richer, It was an enjoyable read, thank you for publishing it. I was hoping that a relative L Gillespie may have been mentioned, however I was clutching at straws.
     
  18. Dr Chris

    Dr Chris Member

    Dear Snuffles
    Many thanks for your generosity. Unfortunately, Mr Bezos takes about half of it! I am though pleased you enjoyed the book - at least you may have some flavour of what your relative experienced.
    Chris
     
  19. David Hanks

    David Hanks New Member

    Hello, great thread, I was wondering if anyone had an info on the movements of the 4th btn in Northumberland. A friend often spoke about his stay at Belsay Hall, Northumberland sometime between Summer 1942 and april 1943, but I can’t find any trace of them in the north. Are the war diaries online anywhere ?
     
  20. Dr Chris

    Dr Chris Member

    Hi David
    Some War Diaries are certainly available at the National Archives in Kew. I looked at a couple post-Dunkirk, and immediately after returning to the UK, the battalion was in Yorkshire (in the south I think). At some later time it moved south for coastal defence duties in Kent and Sussex. The War Diary for the period (WO166/8903) reports that the battalion embarked from the Clyde for the Middle East on 31 May 1942, which doesn't seem to tie up with being in Northumberland during the period you mention. I recall reading that it had been in action in the Western Desert, but can't give you a reference.
    Good hunting!
     

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