292975 Lieutenant Eric Fletcher WATERS, 8th Battalion Royal Fusiliers: 18/02/1944

Discussion in 'Italy' started by Scout Sniper, Aug 8, 2011.

  1. Scout Sniper

    Scout Sniper Senior Member

    The Royal Fusiliers were involved in many notable battles of the war, including Operation Shingle, or as it is now known, the Battle of Anzio. On 18 February 1944 Company Z (8th Battalion) was ordered to hold the bridgehead against a Tiger I tank assault. There were many casualties,including Eric Fletcher Waters, father of Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters, who wrote the song "When the Tigers Broke Free" about the attack.

    Have any 8th Battalion veterans written memoirs about their experiences in the war? If yes, could someone please give me the titles of these books. Thank you.
     
  2. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Scout Sniper.

    You could try 'Always a Fusilier - The War History of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) 1939-1945' by C Northcote Parkinson.

    FdeP
     
  3. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2099066/eric-fletcher-waters/
    SECOND LIEUTENANT ERIC FLETCHER WATERS
    Service Number: 292975
    Regiment & Unit: 8th Bn. Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)

    Date of Death: 18 February 1944
    Age 29 years old
    Buried or commemorated at CASSINO MEMORIAL
    Memorial Reference: Panel 5.
    Location: Italy
    Additional Info: Son of George H. and Mary E. Waters; husband of Mary D. Waters, of Great Bookham, Surrey.




    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...nk-Floyd-musicians-father-died-in-battle.html
    [​IMG]
    Found: the spot where Pink Floyd musician's father died in battle

    Detective work by a British war veteran has located the exact spot where the father of Roger Waters was killed in Italy during the Second World War.

    Waters was just five months old when his father, Lt Eric Fletcher Waters, died aged 31 during fighting between Allied and German forces at Anzio in early 1944. His body was never recovered but his name is commemorated at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at nearby Monte Cassino. The pain of not knowing his father inspired Waters to write some of Pink Floyd’s best-known songs.

    Using War Office records at the National Archives in Kew, Harry Shindler, 93, who also served at Anzio, is certain that he has found the place where Lt Waters died in a German counter-attack.

    Mr Shindler, the head of the Italy Star Association of veterans, located a British army intelligence report which records the place of Lt Waters’s death — a fox hole about 12 miles inland, on the outer perimeter of the Allied bridgehead. The intelligence summary, written by a Lt Col J Oliver-Bellasis, discloses that the officer died when his unit, Z Company of 8th Bn, Royal Fusiliers, was attacked at a place nicknamed “the wadi”. The report gives the exact battlefield coordinates – 830300 – of the spot.

    Mr Shindler now plans to get hold of British military maps to establish the exact location of the coordinates.

    The intelligence report shows that on the night of Feb 17, 1944, Lt Waters’s company came under sustained assault from a German counterattack involving tanks and infantry. By the morning of the next day, the situation was desperate and the unit was eventually surrounded. Lt Waters was killed and another officer, a Lt Hill, was wounded.

    “It was part of a massive German attack – they wanted to throw us back into the sea,” Mr Shindler told The Daily Telegraph. “The bodies of a lot of our chaps were never recovered – you can imagine why given how hard the fighting was – but they are commemorated on a panel at Monte Cassino.”

    Mr Shindler, who lives in Italy, heard the story of Waters’s father after the musician visited Monte Cassino, south-east of Rome, in March this year to pay tribute to his father.

    “I didn’t even know who Pink Floyd were; my musical tastes stopped with the Beatles,” he said. “But I was very moved by his story – a chap who was only a baby when his father died but who had such great affection for him. I thought that if I could help in any way then I would. I have found the exact spot where he was killed. I’m sure he’ll be pleased with the outcome, I hope it brings him a bit of closure.” Mr Shindler has contacted Waters through his agent. “With his permission, I’m hoping to convince the local authorities to put up a plaque to mark the spot,” he said.

    Waters, who was unavailable for comment last night, has described the devastating impact of his father’s loss.

    “I was very angry. It took me years to come to terms with it. Because he was missing in action, presumed killed, until quite recently I expected him to come home. The sacrifice of his life has been a great gift and a great burden to me.”


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    Last edited: Feb 18, 2024
  4. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...l-hours-WW2-revealed-dramatic-dispatches.html
    Touching moment Pink Floyd star visits World War II cemetery in Italy to honour his soldier father who died in heroic final stand
    Roger Waters' father Eric died in Italy in the closing stages of the war
    He made an emotional journey to the battlefield where his father died
    Pink Floyd star was just five months when his father was killed in action
    Lt Waters' name is on a memorial at Cassino but remains were never found
    Roger Waters said his father died because of foolhardy generals in songs he recorded

    This is the touching moment Pink Floyd star Roger Waters visits a cemetery near where his soldier father died in the final months of World War II.

    Eric Fletcher Waters was serving as a second lieutenant with the Royal Fusiliers as they advanced through Italy in 1944 when he was killed in action.

    His newborn son Roger was aged just five months when he was killed on the battlefield near Cassino.

    Earlier this year, the Pink Floyd musician made an emotional journey to visit the battlefield where his father was killed along with thousands of other Allied troops.

    He was able to pinpoint the exact spot where he died and also visited a graveyard where his death is marked on a memorial.
    The second lieutenant's remains were never found.


    Now, War Diary documents unearthed at the National Archives in Kew by former veteran Harry Shindler, paint a clear picture of the final 24 hours of Lt Waters and the brave men of Z company (coy) who were with him at Anzio in February 1944.

    [​IMG]

    The diary, which documents dramatic dispatches from Mr Waters' time in service


    The first line dated February 17 records how at 11am 'intensive shelling and mortaring' took place in the area where Lt Waters, commanding officer John Oliver-Bellasis and the rest of Z company as they tried to advance on a heavily defended German position.

    Later in the day, an entry timed 1745, describes colourfully how the Germans called on Lt Waters and his comrades to give up: 'Z coy reported an attack on the left forward platoon. The bosche called on them to surrender but were answered with all available SA (semi automatic) fire. Casualties were inflicted.'


    Just over an hour later, the entry adds: 'Situation well in hand, enemy decided to withdraw. 'Prisoners from Z coy said they had recently marched from Rome and were told they would not be used in an attack. Had also been told that b'head was almost finished.'


    The report goes on to record a quiet night but then in the early hours of the morning at 1.45am, the day Lt Waters was killed, describes an 'enemy concentration reported on the rt of 7th Oxf & Bucks, which is followed by an entry at 0630 of how the Oxf and Bucks troops are being attacked 'and sounds of tracked vehilces heard to their front.'

    At 7.15am 'Z coy reported attack by approx 50 Bosches. Successfully dealt with.' More than two hours later at 0945am it adds: '5 enemy killed and several spandaus captured as result of above.' Then 30 minutes later the battle which will claim Lt Waters life begins.


    It reads: 'Further attack on Z coy. This time in greater strength than previous attack. Enemy in close contact with forward positions. Unable to send assistance as Z coy having trouble on their rt.'

    An hour later the Diary records: 'Z coy reported enemy all round their positions, very stiff fighting going on.' Then at 1130am the final report reads: 'Lt Waters killed and Lt Hill wounded, situation now critical. Message received over air that assistance would now be too late.'

    Lt Waters was killed in the first wave of fighting as the Allies attempted to secure the beach head at Anzio, south of Rome.

    Lt Waters name is on a memorial at the nearby Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Cassino but his remains were never found.

    Eric Waters' death provided the inspiration for several songs and it is commemorated in particular with When The Tigers Broke Free, which also appeared in the film The Wall.

    In the song, Waters describes how he feels that his 31-year-old father died because of foolhardy generals.

    The last verse has the lyrics 'It was dark all around. There was frost in the ground When the tigers broke free. And no one survived From the Royal Fusiliers Company Z. They were all left behind, Most of them dead.

    'The rest of them dying. And that's how the High Command Took my daddy from me.'


    He also describes coming across a letter of condolence from George V as he tried on his father's uniform, adding how he found it disturbing that it was rubber-stamped and not actually signed.

    After visiting the cemetery at Cassino in March, Waters, 70, told a local Italian TV station: 'I'm on a journey through Europe, my grandfather was killed in 1916 and my father was killed down the road in Anzio. This is the end of my journey.

    'Some of my past is in my music and so is my future. I'm making a film that won't be aired in public.'

    Speaking of his father, Waters recalled in an interview his childhood and how his father's death had affected him. He said: 'When men in uniform came to collect their children, that's when I realised I didn't have a father anymore.

    'I was very angry. It took me years to come to terms with it. Because he was missing in action, presumed killed, until quite recently I expected him to come home. The sacrifice of his life has been a great gift and a great burden to me.'

    The film and album The Wall tells the story of how a troubled rock star called Pink, who is said to be Waters, is left psychologically scarred by the loss of his father in the war. The film opens with scenes of a solider - Eric Waters - along with his comrades, storming a beachhead.

    Mr Shindler, 93, a veteran who fought in Italy during Word War Two and is in charge of the Itay Star Association which represents former soldiers, said: 'I started to dig around on the story when I saw a report of this man on the TV.

    'I was very moved that he wanted to find out more about his father's death and the circumstances of how he was killed. I don't know who Pink Floyd are, my music stops at The Beatles.

    'The report describes the events leading up to his father's death and how they were surrounded and outnumbered but despite putting on a brave fight their was nothing they could do.'

    Mr Shindler adds that he had been in touch with Roger Waters agent but had no direct contact with the musician who recently completed a successful tour of Europe.

    On his official website Waters has posted a tribute to his father and urged fans to send in photos and stories of their 'Fallen Loved Ones'.

    He writes it 'is a request, from me, reaching out to ask you to provide a photograph and personal details of a "Loved One" lost in war. Your "Loved One’s" pictures and details would be included, along with those of my father Eric, in my up coming show THE WALL, as an act of remembrance. The "Fallen Loved One" does not have to have been a soldier. Civilian deaths are equally, if not more, harrowing.

    'I make this request to you in light of my belief that many of these tragic losses of life are avoidable. I feel empathy with the families of all the victims and anger at "THE POWERS THAT BE", who are responsible, in equal measure. Please join me in honouring our dead and protesting their loss.'



    [​IMG]
    On the offensive: This picture shows troops landing in Anzio, on the Italian coast, in 1944




    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Landing_at_Anzio.jpg
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2024
    4jonboy likes this.
  5. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    When I bought Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' in 1980 I was 16 years old. Apart from the anarchical element to 'Another Brick in the Wall' my mates never liked the album.

    I loved it and would play it over and over, obviously 'Comfortably Numb' stands out musically, but I was fascinated by all the incidental audio within the soundtrack, many of which had military overtones. I'm not saying I 'got' the message (too young and naive) but maybe it was touching a WW2 nerve somewhere. :)
     
    dbf likes this.
  6. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    ITV News did a piece on this last night. I was in the rec room hoping we wouldn't get a job before it came on the TV. Fortunately I managed to watch the article. Anyone see it? I couldn't help thinking after the 'I've been searching for years' bit that we could have done it for him years ago if he asked on here.
     
  7. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Andy.

    I could not agree more. I have traced GR 830300 and it is easily accessible. My only doubt about the story is that armour was being used in the wadis. The wadis was not a place for armour: neither Allied nor German.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  8. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    I posted this as a a thread on Twitter so I thought I'd post it here for those not on that platform.

    On 18th February 1944 292706 Lieutenant Eric Fletcher Waters, father of Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, was killed in action while serving with 8 Royal Fusiliers in the Anzio beachhead.

    8_Rf_1_walters_photo.jpg

    8_RF_1_walters_kia.JPG

    He had only joined the battalion eight days earlier, just before it left for Anzio, together with four other officers and 67 ORs. The battle at Anzio from 16-18th February was to be the first and last action for a lot of these men.

    8_RF_2_walters_join.JPG

    he battalion arrived at Anzio on 13th Feb at almost full strength and took up positions in an area known as the Wadis on the 15th. On the 16th the battalion was assaulted by units of FJR 11 and over the next two days the three rifle companies were overrun one by one.

    8_RF_3_attack1.jpg

    8_RF_3_attack.jpg

    On the morning of the 18th Z Company was the last company destroyed in 'bitter close combat' with 7 and 8 Kompanies of FJR 11. Forty-eight PoWs were taken. The Germans were commanded by an Oberjäger Krause - a corporal, an indication of how weak the German units also were.

    8_rf_4_Z_coy_Pow.JPG

    8_rf_4_map.jpg

    8_RF_4_4FJD.jpg

    By the end of the 18th February the battalion had lost more than 50% of its strength; 241 ORs were reported as missing and five officers had been killed, two wounded and five captured over the two days of fighting.

    8_rf_5_missing_1.JPG

    8_rf_5_missing_2.JPG

    8_rf_5_missing_4.JPG

    8_RF_5_ORs.JPG

    Of the four other officers who joined the battalion with Eric Waters, two were wounded and one captured on 16th (their first day of action) and the final one (Lieutenant Glover) was with B Echelon during the battle. He was subsequently wounded on 26th February 1944.

    8_RF_6_officers.JPG

    Lieutenant Eric Waters has no known grave and is commemorated on the Cassino Memorial. In 2013 a memorial was unveiled but, despite what tour guides may say, it is about a km or so from where he was killed.

    8_Rf_7_memorial1.jpg

    8_Rf_7_memorial.jpg
     
  9. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Gary.

    Any idea why the Eric Waters memorial is where it is and so far away from where Z Coy were deployed when he was killed?

    Regards

    Frank
     
  10. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Obligatory familial musical reference point:
    'When the Tigers broke free.'

     
  11. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    I'm not sure Frank - I think you once told me it was the closest they could get someone who was willing to allow the land to be used?
     
  12. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Gary.

    I did but I had not realised Z Coy was deployed quite so far away

    F
     
  13. Heirloom_Tomato

    Heirloom_Tomato New Member

    Gary Tankard where did you find the maps of the attack routes for the 11th Regiment FJR?
     
  14. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    Hi, they are from the 4. FJD history.
     
  15. Heirloom_Tomato

    Heirloom_Tomato New Member

    Thanks Gary. I have been searching for these and seem to be coming up dry, can you provide a link or a book title?
     
  16. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

  17. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Is that from the original that you have? I bought a reprint that has a red cover. Did you buy the 1.FJD history which is green? You did then :)
    His he selling another copy of that you know of?

    I checked his website the other day & that book had gone.

    Edit.

    Different book.
    Hands-up
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2022
  18. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    Memorials tend to be erected the erectors can obtain permission and access. The memorial is conveniently on the side of a minor road. Much ofn the Anzio battlefield is inaccessible as fields and footpaths have been wired off. I suspect the inhospitable local response might have much to do with the tendncy of any patch of countryside to be covered in rubbish. (Possibly the consquence of Mafia run rubbish removal contracts.)

    Several Pink Floyd compositons feature Eric Waters usually as a victim of theninhumanity of war -m Black and Blue and The Day the Tigers came. However, Eric Waters was an officer by choice. Earlier in the war he had registered himself as a conscietious objector and served in the London Fire and Rescue Service - an honourable contribution to the war effort. IIRC that his wife was a communist and persuaded Eric to take a more active role.

    Monte Cassino: the German view by former FJ officer Rudolf Bohmler includes much about the battle for Anzio, particularly by 4 FJD. I was struck by the descriptions of the German attacks. Modest numbers of paratroops attacked British positions and took lots of PW, many from prestigious unist such as the foot guards. This reinforces the view propagated, in WW2 by observers such as Lionel Wigram and Paul Hergest, about the fragility of British infantry morale - and repeated in works by Max Hastings and others. In this context, Eric Waters a junior officer in his first battle was killed because ewe was doing his duty, along with the other men who put up a fight.
     
  19. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Roger Waters unveiled a memorial in Italy to his late Father and other soldiers who were killed in an historic battle during World War Two. The memorial takes the form of a newly-erected white obelisk in the town of Aprilia south of Rome. The date that I have is February 19, 2014.

    Frank,

    are you aware of this? I think it must be worth a visit on our next study. It might be a small detour? What do you think? I think we should. I will leave that with you. Never been into the town/ City of Aprilia. It was a village all them years ago when it got smashed to bits. Even though the Italians classed it has a City. Really?

    Edit: How about visiting the Church & the Cinema that has been rebuilt? Its a must be in my opinion.

    Edit two: I could spend a few hours around that Church if we had the time?

    Regards,
    Stu.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2022
  20. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Stu.

    Will do.

    F
     

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