Frederick Clifford Cole (Clifford). 172676. 59 HAA Regt RA

Frederick Clifford Cole (Clifford), Service No. 172676 - Served with the Essex Regiment, 167 battery of 59 Heavy Anti Aircraft (HAA). Travelled to Algeria, Egypt and Italy amongst others, fought at Monte Cassino before travelling to Rome.


Hope you can help, Alistair

 

I might be able to help you with Frederick Clifford Cole (Clifford), Service No. 172676.

But you're going to have to bear with me because my laptop has died and I've just deposited my laptop with my files at the service centre.

 

Thanks Charley, I've read many of your contributions on the 1/4th Essex and Monte Cassino threads - thanks so much. Good luck with the laptop, they can't be trusted can they!

 

Frederick Clifford Cole (Clifford), Service No. 172676 was an Officer ,Captain ? The medal card below is a supplementary issue , perhaps the original medals were issued under another number if he rose through the ranks ? Commissioned 1941 ? Wounded as a Lieutenant in 1943 .




Full Name :Cole, F C
Date :17 Jan 1943
Fate:Wounded
Incident Details :Reported to the War Office Casualty Branch for the 24 hours ended 09.00am.
Incident Date :27 Jan 1943
Information :Casualty List No. 1043.
Rank Name :Lieutenant
Service Number :172676
Duty Location :North Africa
Service :British Army
Regiment :Royal Artillery
Archive Reference :WO417/004
Conflict Period :World War II
Served For United Kingdom


Kyle

 

Ah amazing thanks Kyle. This is interesting as a do have Clifford's service records but the main injury I'm aware that he received was shrapnell in the cheek during Monte Cassino, in 1944, so this would suggest another injury which I'm unaware of, I wonder where 59th HAA of the Essex Regiment were in Jan 1943. Service records attached here...

 

Hi Alistair, and thank you for your PM.

You say Frederick fought at Monte Cassino, so I guess he was one of the unlucky ones that were transferred out of the 59th HAA, probably during the summer of 1944. I say this because the 59th were not involved at MC and also because his name does not appear in the regiment's address book, which was issued at the end of the war.

If you haven't already done so, take a look at my site (Sergeant ACK-ACK) which may give an idea of the places and some of Frederick's WW2 experiences.

I will be watching your progress here with great interest, as there is not too much about the 59th on these pages.

 

Hi,

You look to have posted some pages from his officers record of service book which is not the same - not as detailed - as the service record held by UK MOD.

Officers Record of Service Book (Army Book 439)

As he was born over 116 years ago you should be able to get an unedited service record from MOD without submitting a death certificate or other proof of death.

As he is an officer his file will not have been transferred to UK National Archives.

Get a copy of military records of service

Steve

 

They were in North Africa, having very recently arrived in support of Operation Torch.

 

Thanks for getting back so quickly Steve. I've begun going through your wonderful site, and that's a really intriguing comment about the 59th not being involved at Monte Cassino. I emailed Frank de Planta after reading posts on here, and he also suggested that he would have been part of a crew attached to the 8th Army in some way at that point. I'd love to know how that came about.

He had some really distinct memories from his time at MC - he recalls his only warm nights sleep being when a rat decided to snuggle up next to him, and we also think MC was where he contracted Malaria, which affected him for his remaining years. We know he spent time in Naples, and ended up in Rome despite his injury during MC, although I'm not sure whether he arrived after it's liberation.

Thanks so much for your interest

 

Ah that's really useful to know, I had no idea there might be different types of service record, I'll get onto that! Thank you

 

There is an example of an officers service record (Army Form 199) in this topic -

Lt Col Santos Casani - can you help explain his rise from Lt to Lt Col?

 

Too quick, probably! Just noticed that the battle for Monte Cassino was 17th Jan to 18th May 1944, so that's a better estimate of when he was transferred & deployed.

 

I am confused by your wording here.

59th HAA and 1/4th Essex were separate units with separate divisions; he can't have been with both at the same time.

Where is your reference for his being with 1/4th Essex coming from?

I only see 167th or 187th Essex R.A. in the last image.

The image is blurred.

 

Ah maybe I'm misquoting here... he was in Essex Regiment, Royal Artillery, which I've since been told puts him in 59th HAA, and can see from his records "167/59 HAA" which I'm assuming mean 167 battery. I'll replace "1/4th Essex" with "Essex Regiment"... hopefully that makes more sense?

 

59 (The Essex Regiment) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA (TA)
Formed from 7th Bn The Essex Regiment (TA) in 1935.

 

Indeed!

Is your post in the spirit of amplification, clarification or contradiction?

 

The second.

 

Eyethankewe.

 

Ali.

Frederick Cole was in the Royal Artillery rather than Essex Regiment. When 7th Battalion Essex Regiment - of which he was part, was switched from infantry to gunnery, his cap badge switched too. For the rest of the war, he was administered by the Royal Artillery Records Office rather than the Essex Regiment Records Office.

My hunch, but only seeing the 167 HAA Bty RA War Diary will confirm it, is that the Bty was sent from Naples to Cassino to protect the Eighth Army’s preparations for Op DIADEM - the massive Fourth Battle of Cassino.

Eighth Army, from 23 Mar 44 onwards, were amassing vast amounts of troops, fuel, ammunition and food in the rear area behind the front line. With 1,089 field, medium and heavy guns firing on the night of 11 May 44, huge quantities of ammunition, stored in massive dumps near the guns, were required.

These fuel - 15 million gallons of petrol, and ammunition dumps needed protecting from German aircraft and my hunch is that 167 HAA Bty RA were brought up temporarily for this task from their routine duty protecting the port of Naples.

Regards

Frank

 

Interesting, but I can't find anything in the regiments DRAMA report to support this. Relevant extract:-

1943
November

On 12 Nov part RHQ and part 164 and 167 Btys embarked at Bizerta, followed by part 167 and 265 Btys and RHQ on 13 Nov and the remainder on the 14th.

The regt then sailed for Naples, arriving on 16 Nov at Bagnoli, near Naples. Disembarked and proceeded to the staging area prior to deploying:-

• RHQ at La Fondiana, Via Ponti Rossi.
• 164 Bty occupied an 8-gun position at N14, Scuola Pratica D'Agricultura with BHQ at Chalet Falango, Via San Martino, San Giorgio A Cremano,
• 167 Bty occupied N1 and N6 with BHQ at N1,
• 265 Bty an 8-gun position at N13,
• BHQ at Via Private, Rione P Croice, Aranella.

These moves increased the Naples AA defences by 24 guns and supplemented those provided by 9, 72 and 100 HAA Regts already deployed in the Naples GDA.


1944

January

The regt was deployed in the Naples area for the AA defence of the port. RHQ at Via Ponti Rossi, Naples. 164 Bty BHQ at San Giorgio A Vremano with both troops at site N14, an 8-gun site. 167 Bty BHQ Villa Serracapriola, Portici with C Troop at N1 and D Troop at N6. 265 Bty BHQ at Rione P Croce, Arenella and E and F Troops at N13, an 8-gun position.

March

Enemy aircraft attacked Naples Docks on 2 Mar. N14 engaged and fired 114 rounds.

On 7 May? one unidentified aircraft was engaged by N6 with 10 rounds.

On the 11th another single aircraft dropped flares over the harbour. N1 engaged with 9 rounds.

On 15 Mar the harbour was attacked by 20-30 aircraft and all positions engaged. 1878 rounds expended.

On 18 Mar Vesuvius erupted and by 21 Mar the lava flow was moving in the direction of N14 which was ordered to be ready to move. In the event this was not necessary as the lava flow stopped on 23 Mar.

On 24 Mar N14 was in action against enemy aircraft. 14 rounds fired.

On 31 Mar 164 Bty moved to the Pozzuoli area to relieve 305 HAA Bty of 100 HAA Regt which was leaving the area. A Troop occupied B9 and B Troop occupied B2. BHQ was established in a nearby house.

April

Naples was attacked by enemy aircraft on the night 14/15 Apr. There were several raids varying from 1 to 12 aircraft. A harbour barrage was fired and 449 rounds were expended.

There was a minor raid on 21 Apr, probably photo recce because flares were dropped. 80 rounds fired.

On 24 Apr an unknown number of Ju 88s or Ju 188s dropped several bombs. 1,661 rounds were fired.

May

Ground firing practice was carried out on local artillery ranges on 10/11 May.

June

On 2 Jun 238 African ORs were posted to the regt to replace British gun numbers. All were trained in AA gunnery duties with 120 HAA Regt in Cyprus. On average, each Bty now had 215 British ORs (BORs) and 75 African ORs (AORs).

Not sure if this helps!