Original Italian Campaign Graves.

I thought that I had almost spotted a coincidence here, the same unit and date of death as the father of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd but I see now that he was 8th Battalion. Both Battalions formed part of 167th (London) Infantry Brigade.

CWGC :: Casualty Details

There is a scene in "The Wall" showing his death at Anzio. His name is on the Cassino memorial.

I wonder how some of my favourite music of the 1970s would have sounded had Roger Waters felt more secure and less angry.

 

Owen

I see that you will be visiting the British cemetery at Cassino.

If you see any grave sites with a small wooden "Shield of David" (see below), these were planted by me when I visited the cemetery in May 2005.

One of my tasks was to bring the records of AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women) up to date and the markers were left to show that the graves had been recorded.

 

Owen - as you are well aware - the Derbyshire Yeomenry were the Recce regiment for 6th Armoured Div -and did a sterling job all the way from Algiers to Austria
Cheers

 

Owen thanks for the link to this thread. How naive to think that the grave the soldiers are buried in at the war cemetery, would have been their first burial.

 

With regard to the Anzio Beach head & Cassino Graves, i found these documents in WO 361-465.

Interesting to note the number of supposed 'Known' graves still not recovered within these areas, 12 months after the fighting had finished.

Also how the areas were still sealed off, to everyone except the GRU's, because of minefields etc.

 

Rosy Redd
No one can be blamed for being naive about the initial burial of the dead as it is seldom discussed and everyone assumes
that a cemetery was always handy…what usually happened in most battles that when the sun went down was the time to look and pick up both the wounded and the dead - the dead were set aside and the wounded were tended to and sometimes hauled off to the Field Ambulances - CCS' or General Hospitals etc..the dead were then buried if there was still some peace going on in the morning or when the battle was finished.

In the case of our dead at the Gothic Line - they were buried immediately in late September'44 -then reinterred in the Canadian
Cemetery at Riccione on 1st October along with the Canadian dead with a ceremony and the Band of the New Zealand Division- but that cemetery was to be developed later and so when the British Cemetery was built at Coriano Ridge in 1954 on land donated by the
Italian people - the remains of 2000 men were again reinterred there- and it is a beautiful area now with a resident caretaker and
eight part time gardeners and the whole village schoolchildren who are merciless in their treatment of any weeds which show up…

Cheers

 

Superb photos Owen.

 

Major Lawrence Franklyn-Vaile buried at Cassino.

Obviously, not that many Aussies (infantry men) are buried in Italy..

I shall be paying my respects to Lawrie on the morning of 17th May near to Sinagoga and Piumarola and to his/my Dad's comrades at the CWGC cemetery a couple of days later...

You might have been following Lawrie's letters sent home to his wife, Olive..
http://www.irishbrigade.co.uk/pages/eyewitness-accounts/major-lawrence-franklyn-vailes-letters.php

FRANKLYN-VAILE, LAWRENCE
Rank: Major
Service No: 149084
Date of Death: 17/05/1944
Age: 33
Regiment/Service: Royal Irish Fusiliers "C" Coy., 1st Bn.
Grave Reference XI. G. 3.
Cemetery CASSINO WAR CEMETERY
Additional Information:
Son of Thomas Guy Vaile and Violette Beryl Jane Vaile; husband of Olive Franklyn-Vaile, of Blackburn, Victoria, Australia.

 

Richard

You are right that there were no Aussie Infantrymen in Italy but there were a few Aussie Airmen buried at Coriano Ridge Cemetery which surprised me when I last

visited there…

Cheers

 

Just had a quick recce and there are 181 Aussie fliers noted on the CWGC database for Italy..

 

Sorry about this...

Of course the 32 are those listed as serving with Australian forces - there seems to be 23 others (most served with NZ forces) with an Australian next of kin connection (of which three are through marriage, so net 20), of course there must be more who haven't had the address of their parents added to the database..

 

Hi Tom.

Not that I would ever question your eye for detail however I do not have any Aussies in my database at Coriano Ridge.

There is quite correctly 181 RAAF which now includes John Penboss Hunt who was indentified and buried last year at Padua War Cemetery as well as three who were in the RAF which gives a total of 184.

Could it possibly have been another cemetery that you would have thought it strange to see the Aussie flyers buried? Full list below.

Cheers

Geoff

ANCONA WAR CEMETERY
ARGENTA GAP WAR CEMETERY
BARI WAR CEMETERY
BEACH HEAD WAR CEMETERY, ANZIO
BOLOGNA WAR CEMETERY
BOLSENA WAR CEMETERY
CAGLIARI (ST. MICHELE) COMMUNAL CEMETERY
CASERTA WAR CEMETERY
CASSINO WAR CEMETERY
CATANIA WAR CEMETERY, SICILY
FAENZA WAR CEMETERY
FLORENCE WAR CEMETERY
GRADARA WAR CEMETERY
MILAN WAR CEMETERY
MINTURNO WAR CEMETERY
MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
NAPLES WAR CEMETERY
PADUA WAR CEMETERY
RAVENNA WAR CEMETERY
ROME WAR CEMETERY
SALERNO WAR CEMETERY
SANGRO RIVER WAR CEMETERY
STAGLIENO CEMETERY, GENOA
SYRACUSE WAR CEMETERY, SICILY
UDINE WAR CEMETERY