Can anyone give me a rough idea what the Battalion were up to from July to October 1944. As part of my memorial research, Pte. Balkwill, buried in Ravenna, was KIA 24/10/44. I am trying to add a short history to each mans profile, so just need an idea of their movements over the months and what action they were involved in on the day he was killed. Many thanks for any help. Regards Sean.
Overview only, but to stimulate the more expert amongst our number, and reference to war diaries etc. 2 Royal Scots joined the newly formed 66 Brigade (with 1 Hertfordshire and 11 Lancashire Fusiliers) in July 1944. Initially the brigade was temporarily part of 1st Armoured before joining 1st Infantry Division in August in time for the assaults on the Gothic Line of Northern Italy from late August 1944 onwards. You'll obviously need to dig deeper to find out where 2 Royal Scots were in October at the time of Private Balkwill's death - war diaries etc. Hope this starts the ball rolling for you.
Paul posted a map from the 1st Div history that shows 2 RS from earlier in October 44 in post #31. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/italy/6002-11th-bn-lancashire-fusiliers.html
Paul posted a map from the 1st Div history that shows 2 RS from earlier in October 44 in post #31. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/italy/6002-11th-bn-lancashire-fusiliers.html Cheers Owen, Im on my way.
SP as Bexley says - war diaries your best bet as in all of October while trying to progress the line before winter - a great deal of re-organisaton was going on to replace the casualties of the Gothic Line as we had taken 14,000 KIA and thousands wounded - 1st Armoured was broken up - many other units including Navy and AirForce were co-opted into the army as all the reinforcements were going to the NWE campaign - we had nothing left by then Cheers
Thanks Tom, I may need to look at how Im going to play this. I have completed profiles for about 54 WW1 men (1 not confirmed) most of which I gathered through Ancestry and LLT etc. Similar amount of civilians, which I have details for almost all of, and again a similar number of WW2 soldiers. I may need to draw up a list of all Regiments and KIA dates and pass on to a certain researcher!!
This is the Jul to Dec 1944 war diaries' reference : WO 170/1473 Detecting your browser settings Thanks again Richard
