7899116 Frank WALLBANK, 3rd King's own Hussars

Hello, I recently found my father's WW2 diaries, and although they are very faint and damaged, I am managing to transcribe them. I hope eventually to add photos which he took. He joined up at the start of the war as he was already doing Military service , and was sent home via the 'Python' (?) scheme in early 1945. He served in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy, including the second Battle of El Alamein when they lost 51 out of 54 tanks.
I hope to send for his records, and to be able to post the diaries on this site when I have completed my task. In total there are 2 notebooks, with quite detailed day-to -day commentary.
His name was Frank Wallbank, 7899116 of the 3rd King's Own Hussars, and he was a fitter and mechanic for tanks and lorries. He died in 2007, but I hope to leave this record so that his descendants can read and learn what he did. When he was alive, he never spoke to any of his 5 children about his war experiences.

 

Hello and a warm welcome to the forum .

You are very lucky to have your late father's war diaries, and you will be keeping his memory alive by transcribing them.
I look forward to your postings and the photos your father took, and I am sure other members will too.

Lesley

 

What she said

 

Maisie

The 3rd Hussars were in the thick of it from very early on and it will be of great interest to read about their day to day activities…

just as soon as you are able…

Cheers

 

Maisiefosse

Well done !

You can't go very far wrong in honouring your father in this manner.

Python, by the way, was the original scheme to offer return to the UK for those who had served more than a set period overseas.

Best regards

Ron

 

Hi and welcome. I look forward to reading the diaries when you post them.

 

Hello and welcome.

I would be most interested to hear what your father had to say about the period 10-17 June 1944. I believe that 3 Hussars were attached to the trish Brigade and were involved in taking Monte Giove with its magnificent castle. (Google it!)

Vitellino

 

Hi Vitellino,
Although I have not yet started typing up the later section, there is a section of several pages covering these dates , which refer to Mt Aucaino, Ficcule, Monteleone, castiglione, Tordimonte. There is a lot of detail about skirmishes, and about the Italian people's welcome. On a quick reading, I have not seen mention of Monte Giove, but when I type up this section I will send it to you. As my father was a tank fitter, there is always a lot of detail about what happened to the tanks.

 

Maisie,

Welcome to WW2Talk.
Sounds like it will be a fascinating read and if you can include the photos so much the better.

 

Hello Maisie,

i'm looking forward very much to reading it - also the entry for Orvieto. Thanks very much . Your father would have gone on to Monte Giove from Monteleone,

Regards,

Vitellino

 

Hi Vitellino,
I'm still in 1941 at present, and as this diary is extremely faded, it can take a couple of hours to decipher a page. The Italy section, when I get to it, is much easier to read and in better condition. I just found:

May 26 1944 '11.15am and we are on our way- our purpose is to support the 78th Div (Inf.) as a Brigade, each regiment supporting an Infantry Brigade, and each squadron an Infantry Regiment. The 3rd are to be attached to the Irish Brigade.'

'June 7th. 1944. A lecture by the O.C. who read a letter of thanks from the Col. of the London Irish Infantry Regiment who had our assistance on the 'Push.' afterwards we went up to the lake for a swim having a good feed of cherries on the way. '

The section I'm working on at present is near to Benghazi in March 1941, with lots of detail about daily dive-bomber attacks.
Regards,
June

 

Hi.

Whilst you are in the 1941 Diary, I would be very interested to hear of any new replacement tanks from the U.K received by the Regiment.

Thanks,

David.

 

June,

Good luck with your transcriptions...as you say the 3 KOH joined up with 38th (Irish) Brigade on 26th May 1944 on the push northwards towards Ripi (Hill 255, San Giovanni et al) and thence beyond Rome during June (before 11 CAR again took up the armoured support reins for Sanfatucchio etc in late June)....my Dad and his mates were mighty pleased to have the support over the next three weeks

Brigadier Pat Scott recalled:

"We were in the process of changing our Armoured Regiment at this juncture. It was rather an awkward moment to make the change. As I have said, the success was dependent on the various people getting to know each other personally, and there was not much time to do this. Our new Regiment was the 3rd Hussars, commanded by Peter Farquahar. I knew him well, as he had been my JUO at Sandhurst and often kicked my bottom. He took the reversal of the situation well and did everything that mortal men could do to help us. The Regiment had only fought in the desert before and the difficult going in Italy was about as different a problem for his point of view as anything could be...."

and the "Col. of the London Irish Infantry Regiment" (John Horsfall) wrote later:

".. at nightfall, Mike Eveleigh reported instead. Mike commanded B Squadron of the 3rd Hussars and he moved his tanks in to join us during the late night..."

and on the push towards Ripi

"..It was trackless and routeless, full of small ravines, scrub and hillocks – and Mike Everleigh said after studying it that it was worst tank going he had ever seen. ’I would have you know,’ said our gallant cavalry commander, ‘that we were trained for the desert.’ (Mike got an MC at Alamein)..."

and on the attack at San Giovanni by 2 LIR on 30th May, again described by Scott:

“...We were then briefed to take over the lead with our objective Ripi some six miles ahead. Mike Everleigh had arrived on foot with a promise of the eventual arrival of his tanks so we made our plot together on the top of 255, which incidentally the Bosche started to hot up at the same time. As it was, we saw quite a lot of movement in front of us, including a tank.

The squadron arrived at 1130 after spending fifteen hours en route. It was a magnificent feat their getting at all across those hills and everyone thought they were attempting the impossible.

Zero was at noon and at 1205hrs, the leading tank went up on a mine effectively blocking the only route. It took the Pioneers an hour to clear the minefield and make a diversion and then the battle started in earnest. E Company probed forward covered by two troops of tanks and after the first thousand yards ran into Huns in strength on either side of the road and mostly in buildings. Ian immediately brought down a series of ‘Monkeys’, while Mike got busy with his tanks plastering each locality and building..."

best

 

Thanks for this information, Bexley 84, - it's fascinating.

David, if I find any 'new tank' info I'll send it to you.
Regards,
June

 

That's very kind.

Thank you so much.

Best wishes, David.

 

Hi David,
Just doing a fascinating section which is 2nd -15th April 1941, where they do a 900 mile withdrawal to Tobruk, and there is a mention of new tanks brought in to Tobruk harbour.

'On the 11th we got into camp at Tobruk and had our first decent meal and sleep for days. During the whole journey we covered 900 miles, lost 48 trucks and all our tanks and have 18 men missing. We are now camped on the edge of Tobruk. Each day Jerry dive-bombers come over to bomb the harbour and yesterday 4 were brought down. Today, 9 more have just visited and we're now waiting to see how many got away. They just drop their bombs and shoot off at full speed with several Hurricanes after them. In the harbour now is the 'Waitora'- one of the ships in our convoy from Blighty bringing a cargo of tanks, mostly Matildas.'

I'll send more if it's mentioned.
Regards,
June

 

Thanks!!

 

Hi June,

I am currently researching my girlfriends family tree and her great uncle Trooper John C Wood was in this unit. He died in February 1943 in an explosion on a train in Syria and I would be interested if you come across anything mentioning this in the war diary.

Many Thanks,

Tony

 

Hello! I have just joined the Forum and my Farther was also in The 3rd Kings Own Hussars! And like your father he rarely talked about his experiences! What few things I did learn was by eavesdropping on his conversations with my Uncle who was also in the Regiment, they took diferent directions after the defeat of the Afrika Corps in Tunisia! My father went on to Italywhilst my uncle came back to England to train on the Floating Tanks for D Day!
I look forward to reading more of your fathers Diaries.