123 LAA Regt, RA - 22 September 1944

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by Buteman, Feb 12, 2011.

  1. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    A while ago I promised to copy for someone, the page covering the events of 22 September 1944 from the War Diaries. I have looked back across my notes and can't find or remember who it was.

    The pages are posted in the hope that someone will come back and look. If you know who you are, I will e-mail the after action report. It was typed both sides of flimsy paper and the image is not too great. By zooming in, you can read it (Just about).

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    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Nov 13, 2020
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  2. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    I have to make a report about Veghel within this month, so it will be welcome anyway, do you have anymore pages :)
     
  3. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    It was me, Rob! To find out what happened to the following men:
    Lance Bombardier Joseph Schofield
    Gunner Colin Latham Baxter
    Gunner David Stanley Mundy
    Gunner John Thomas Peabody
    Serjeant George Richard Reynolds
    Gunner Stanley Walter Rice
    Lance Bombardier Cedric Vause Wayland
    Gunner Joseph Robert Sate

    All served with 123 (6th Bn. The City of London Regt.) Lt. A.A. Regt., got killed on 22 September 1944 and are buried at Milsbeek War Cemetery.
     
  4. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    I have to make a report about Veghel within this month, so it will be welcome anyway, do you have anymore pages :)

    Sorry Philip. I only have what was posted.

    It was me, Rob! To find out what happened to the following men:
    Lance Bombardier Joseph Schofield
    Gunner Colin Latham Baxter
    Gunner David Stanley Mundy
    Gunner John Thomas Peabody
    Serjeant George Richard Reynolds
    Gunner Stanley Walter Rice
    Lance Bombardier Cedric Vause Wayland
    Gunner Joseph Robert Sate

    All served with 123 (6th Bn. The City of London Regt.) Lt. A.A. Regt., got killed on 22 September 1944 and are buried at Milsbeek War Cemetery.

    :lol: My short term memory is bad Pieter. I will e-mail you the 2 pages of the after action report. You can zoom in on the report and can read it better than on here.

    I wonder what happened to the ninth casualty mentioned in the war diary. Another guy from 123 LAA who died the same day is buried at Bergen-op-Zoom, but that is not even close to where 123 LAA were operating and the Allies did not fight in that area until late in October.
     
  5. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    No Problem Rob, will order there WD in Kew, thanks anyway
     
  6. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    I wonder what happened to the ninth casualty mentioned in the war diary. Another guy from 123 LAA who died the same day is buried at Bergen-op-Zoom, but that is not even close to where 123 LAA were operating and the Allies did not fight in that area until late in October.

    That's quite a distance indeed. And strange due to the fact that there was no fighting in that area at that moment.
     
  7. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    maybe DOW, or taken after the war to Bergen op Zoom, guys who were killed at Oosterbeek and were found after the war were buried in Nijmegen Jonkerbos first.
     
  8. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    It could be that he was taken to Bergen op Zoom after the war. But DOW doesn't seem that possible. He can't have been at a hospital near Bergen op Zoom in September 1944.
     
  9. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    Not a hospital in Bergen op Zoom ,Pieter, but maybe a hospital in the area, If I am correct the RAF officers was Flight Lieutenant R.T.FTurner, later awarded the MC for this action
     
  10. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    That's quite a distance indeed. And strange due to the fact that there was no fighting in that area at that moment.

    As you say, no fighting there. I have been studying the death of a 62 Anti-Tank man who was killed at Wouw to the East of Bergen-op-Zoom on the 28th October, which is the time when fighting did occur in that area. You would have thought he would have been buried at Bergen-op-Zoom, but no, he ended up being buried at Geel War Cemetery in Belgium.

    Who knows why the Graves Concentration Units would have moved casualties such a distance away from where a death occurred.

    This is the guy buried at BOZ.

    Name: HUNTER, JAMES
    Rank: Gunner
    Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery
    Unit Text: 123 (6th Bn. The City of London Regt.) Lt. A.A. Regt.
    Age: 23
    Date of Death: 22/09/1944
    Service No: 1534318
    Additional information: Son of Isabella Hunter, of Edmonton, Middlesex; husband of Joyce Gladys Hunter, of Edmonton.
    Grave/Memorial Reference: 26. A. 1.
    Cemetery: BERGEN-OP-ZOOM WAR CEMETERY

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    Last edited: Nov 13, 2020
  11. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    As you say, no fighting there. I have been studying the death of a 62 Anti-Tank man who was killed at Wouw to the East of Bergen-op-Zoom on the 28th October, which is the time when fighting did occur in that area. You would have thought he would have been buried at Bergen-op-Zoom, but no, he ended up being buried at Geel War Cemetery in Belgium.

    Well, in that particular case it could have been that he was taken back to the rear. Or that he was badly wounded and needed surgery which was able at a hospital in Geel or something like that.
    This seems less logical in the case of bringing Gunner Hunter over to the Bergen op Zoom area.
     
  12. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    Well, in that particular case it could have been that he was taken back to the rear. Or that he was badly wounded and needed surgery which was able at a hospital in Geel or something like that.


    The 62 AT guy I referred to was KIA at Wouw, temporary grave at Oostlar then taken to Geel sometime later.
     
  13. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    Sometimes even units brought back their KIA from Germany, to be buried in the Netherlands, again as mentioned before when buried locally in the fighting after the war they could been brought to another location

    Have seen a document that after the war Airmen from Vlieland were brought from there to the cemetery in Oldenbroek!, why no reason in the documentents at all
     
  14. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    Oh, I see. That makes the move indeed very hard to understand.
     
  15. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    Sometimes even units brought back their KIA from Germany, to be buried in the Netherlands, again as mentioned before when buried locally in the fighting after the war they could been brought to another location

    Have seen a document that after the war Airmen from Vlieland were brought from there to the cemetery in Oldenbroek!, why no reason in the documentents at all

    The same with Sergeant Groves (see my thread about the Wellington Z1321). An RAF document mentioned he was buried at Wichmond, while the plane crashed at Vlaardingen.
     
  16. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    Something will always remain a mystery Pieter, if come across something in the Veghel archives about the above I will let you know.
     
  17. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    Unfortunatelly some things indeed will. If you find something, it would be great if you would post it here.

    I have read the After Action Report. It was hard to read at sometimes. The text from the back page is coming trough and there are letters missing from every word which is on a new line.
    The report mentiones Schofield, Sate and Mundy. The last one as missing in action. As most fights, the situation must have been very chaotic and confusion.
     
  18. John Brooking

    John Brooking Junior Member

    I have just registered to this site, and have an interest in 123 LAA Regt. My Dad, Denis Brooking served with them, and their predecessors during the war. I have posted, some while ago now, on Philip Reinders site, a except from my Dad's diary regarding the unit's time in the Netherlands.
     
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  19. Pieter F

    Pieter F Very Senior Member

    Welcome to the forum John! Does your father's diary mention anything about 22 september, the fighting which took place that day or the nine casulaties from this thread?
     
  20. John Brooking

    John Brooking Junior Member

    He doesn't say much:

    Thursday 21st September
    Continued move late at night. Via Eindhoven and arrived in Veghel at 7 am (i.e. 22nd).

    Friday 22nd September
    Hot coffee given us by inhabitants. Jerry shelled town all afternoon & evening. Slept in narrow trenches. Fairly quiet night. Road cut by Jerry north of Veghel. 408 & RHQ badly knocked about.

    Saturday 23rd September
    Continued shelling all day. Pulled out of town to small farm. Started move late. All guns & vehicles OK. 3 casualties.

    So this doesn't give the information that you are looking for, I don't think.
     

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