2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusilers Austria

Discussion in 'General' started by 13757gilligan, Oct 31, 2010.

  1. 13757gilligan

    13757gilligan Junior Member

    Trying to trace any records of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during service in Austria during 1945 as part of the occupation forces. My Great-Uncle Sjt Frederick Gilligan, MM served with this battalion and was killed by accidental gunshot on 1st October 1945
     
  2. englandphil

    englandphil Very Senior Member

  3. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Hello and welcome
    If you can, try and get to Kew to get copy of the war diary, he may be mentioned in it.

    WO 170/5018 is the Catalogue No. at National Archives Kew for the War Diary for 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. It covers dates Jan.- Dec. 1945

    Detecting your browser settings

    Also attached, his recommendation for MM. It rather helpfully gives his Company as well as Platoon No.

    WO 373/14-ir1665-pgs362-3
     

    Attached Files:

  4. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Nice one Diane,

    I was looking in 171, so I guess the Skins just kept moving up North then?

    Is that right?

    Steve.
     
  5. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

  6. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

  7. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

  8. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    13757 Gilligan
    The 2nd Skins - as I recall- were part of 38th Bde of the 78th Division and were based primarlily at Spittal in the SW corner of Austria rounding up and looking after the bad guys in the early days after May '45 - many of them moved on to Vienna and part of their tasks was the mounting of the guard at AFHQ which was in the Schonbrunn Palace - after a whole battalion of Pioneers had cleaned it up after the Russians who didn't know what a toilet was. They also were on the various patrols with the Russian - American and French through the city in jeeps - this was known as the BS patrols.

    The Agile and Sufferin battalion were involved in the deaths of a couple of Russians and were moved back to Spittal for their sins.

    Many of the 78th Div took part in the Vienna Tattoo in June of 1946 at the Schonbrunn Palace grounds where thousands of Viennese were entertained by the British Army and more than 10,000GBP's was raised to send many children into the country for fresh air and good food...
    Cheers
     
  9. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I toured Vienna in 1985 with my wife's Austrian family. Had a fascinating insight into the 'other sides' perspective at the end of the war.

    Schonbrunn Palace is a wonderful historic building, but the big memory for me were the gardens to the rear. Huge and well maintained lawns and horticultural delights arranged in perfect symmetry with gigantic Roman Eagles looking down upon the whole scene from their lofty pedestals.

    I have to say the atmosphere within these gardens was somewhat Nurembergesque!

    The Viennese hated the Russian occupation with all the well documented Soviet abuses applying. My wife's Grandmother once defended her Great Dane dog with a shotgun, else, he was for the cooking pot. I guess she was lucky to survive that encounter?

    One Uncle I chatted with told me that he had never known his father, who served on the Eastern front in WW2 and although they knew he had not been killed in action, had never returned to Austria after the war. I took that to mean he ended up POW to the Russians!

    It seemed to me, even at the time, that war and it's consequences are no different across all the nations, regardless of whose side you may have been on.

    Bamboo.
     

Share This Page