Rifleman Bowlby- Quality of replacements?

Recently I finished Alex Bowlby’s memoir “The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby”. It is a good read and certainly gives you a good idea of the nature of the fighting that took place in Italy. Certainly my impression is that the fighting was tough and the Germans were competent and experienced soldiers.

One aspect that surprised me was of the number of desertions he mentions and his references to the quality of the replacements his battalion of the Rifle Brigade received. He talks about the Guards picking replacements, whereas the Rifle Brigade seemed to work with the men they were given with good and bad results. Some of the men who 'desert' in the book seem to re-appear after a few days and re-join the battalion, indicating that the stress of combat had a large part to play.

Not knowing much about the Italian theatre of war myself, are Bowlby’s observations correct? Were other factors at play such as the late stage of the war? Priority of saving men for other theatres?

Scott

 

Hi,

Have you anything further on "Guards picking replacement" comments?

He may mean that RB would get replacements "rebadged" from other regiments compared to, as my father told me, Guardsmen always retaining their recruit regimental association as they could not be compulsorily rebadged to infantry of the line regiments - or other Guards regiments for that matter.

Regards

Steve Y

 

Diane -

Thanks for your comments.

Scott,

Touching on the points you make in your last paragraph -

There was an infantry manpower shortage in the latter stages of the war - fighting in NW Europe, Mediteranean and the Far East - which lead to the disbandment of various Light and Heavy Anti Ajrcraft Units and the reallocation of personnel to infantry and armoured units.

There are also examples of RAF recruits being compulsorily posted to Brigade of Guards Units - for additional training as infantry per Diane's comments above.

There are a couple of Forum members who fought in Italy who I'm sure will have a view on your post.

Steve Y

 

Tullybrone

There was a complete shutdown of reinforcements for the Italian Campaign BEFORE we had captured ROME- then we had to clear out the Anti Air

people as well as extra RAF and RN- finally by December we had to disband some territorial Tank Regiments to fill the gaps - we had nothing left ...

Cheers

 

Thanks Tom.

Perhaps I ought to have said "the Forum Italy veteran members might have a comment on the OP and my post!"

Regards

Steve

 

On levels of desertions, I note Richard Doherty ('Eighth Army in Italy 1943 -45') states that:

"Desertion had created a headache for the Allies for some time and had peaked twice in 1944; in March.. and in June. But its worst manifestation came in late 1944 when 1,200 British soldiers were posted as AWOL or as deserters in both November and December,..at its peak the deserter numbers equalled the infantry strength of a division that had been in the line for some time...at its worse, the numbers of deserters in prison was 5,150 (quoting Blaxland)."

In contrast my father was bemused how difficulty it was to get back to his battalion in the line, after he had been hospitalised in Cairo;

"I was desperate to get back to the London Irish and was pleased when, after two weeks of luxury, I was posted to the training depot at Fayid on the Suez Canal. Here I received a shock. The depot was in the Middle East Force (MEF). My battalion was in the Central Mediterranean Force (CMF). Getting transferred from the MEF to the CMF was to prove a challenge. The tented depot was full of sergeants and other ranks who apparently were more than happy in the sun. But there were a couple of dozen from the Irish Brigade who wanted to get out. I pestered the officer in charge practically daily to get back to Italy with my Irishmen. Finally, my perseverance paid off and a party from the Irish Brigade and a detachment of various Scottish regiments were transferred to the CMF. We were transported to Port Suez and were embarked once more for Taranto. On the voyage, we heard that General Montgomery had been promoted to Field Marshal.

At Taranto, our party was allowed to leave our kit on the quay and walk out for a few hours. All the men from the Irish Brigade were paraded correctly. Some Scots were accompanying us. Suddenly, a party of the latter appeared and one, shouting imprecations, rushed at me with his rifle butt aimed at my face. Two large Skins threw him to the ground. We placed him under close arrest, put him on the train to the north and locked the compartment door. We slept on the train which arrived at Benevento east of Naples the next morning. When we unlocked the compartment, all were there except the one who had tried to injure me. He had left everything and run away. On questioning the other Scots, we discovered that my attacker had deserted before El Alamein in 1942 and had been in a military prison since. I don’t think he bore me any malice but was not too happy about the prospect of being killed. Assaulting an NCO would have put him back in prison for the rest of the war.

We were transported to another training depot where we were confronted by a massive barracks comprising Nissen huts. Innumerable men were being marched around in platoons to the bark of CSMs and sergeants. I was astounded to see squads of sergeants suffering the same indignities. Dinner was a revelation. I was given a ticket for the sergeants’ mess eating at the fourth sitting and thought of the forward battalions with platoons of 20 often commanded by a corporal. All were infantry sergeants.

Personnel below my rank were to drill each day. I was exempt and had nothing to do. I made a bee-line for the company office and fixed an appointment to see the OC. The next morning, I was marched in to see the major who informed me that I was to stay until posted. Immediate release, however, could be obtained if I volunteered to serve with the Special Boat Service in the Adriatic as a company quartermaster sergeant or, even, as a regimental quartermaster. I thanked him but said I wanted to go back to my own unit. I saluted and left the office.

I inquired about the location of the office which dealt with postings and thumbed a lift there. I found it in a large building in Caserta and was taken to the London Irish section. Here, I was enthusiastically greeted by ORQMS Ryan, an old friend, and his predecessor, who was now a subaltern. He roundly condemned the depot filled with sergeants and immediately set about giving a movement order for myself and my 20 or so Irish Brigade personnel. He took me to the mess for lunch. Returning to the depot, I saw a squad of sergeants from many famous regiments being chivvied on parade by an ungentlemanly sergeant major. They endured this as the alternative was to be posted up the line. I laughed to myself. My group would be out of this soon.

The next morning, I was sent for by the officer in command of the depot who demanded to know who gave me permission to leave the camp. But as I had been posted, I would not be charged. The next day, my little group entrained for another depot near Florence. It was unbelievable that a soldier had to surmount so many obstacles to his loyalty and how easy it was to move about the base areas with nothing but your stripes as authority. How simple it would have been to desert."

 

In Italy, during 1944, at any one time there were 22,000 Alliedd deserters/AWOLs. It was a serious problem especially for infantry battalions who were sort of men. I read somewhere that in 1944 up to the fall of Rome the British 12,500 casualties and that they got just 219 replacements - hence the need to continually cannibalise other units especially LAA Regts and the AA element of the Div Hvy Wpns Bns as the Germacn air threat dropped to almost nothing for lack of fuel.

Extraordinary.

FdeP

 

Not just the support elements were used to deal with the lack of infantry. Many Battalions had a company disbanded, while entire Battalions, Brigades or even Divisions were disbanded for replacements!

 

Thanks for those responses. I wasn't aware of how big the issues of deserters and lack of replacements were in this theatre. Out of interest were the New Zealander and Indian units in the theatre similarly affected?

Referring to Bowlby's original comments, which align with dbf's comments, he was praising the efforts of the officers and NCO of the RB and their ability to inspire and lead their men-

"When I consider how Baker and Wilson had fostered this spirit in the Platoon, and how Captain Kendall had done the same for the Company, it made me realise how infinitely greater their achievement had been than officers and NCO's in units like Commandos and Paratroops, whose duds were quickly sent back to their former units, and whose standard of replacements- this was the key to the whole business- was always high (the Guards had picked replacements)".

Bowlby throughout the book seems very honest. I think the names were changed as I can't find a Captain Kendall who died in Italy on the CWGC. He refers to the original desert men and reading between the lines the fighting in Italy was of a different nature than the desert.

Bexley thanks for sharing those words from your father.

Scott

 

It was at the end of Aug 44 that all infantry battalions in Italy dropped from four Rifle Companies to just three. Interestingly, under Army 2020, infantry battalions effectively drop down to two Rifle Companies. I say effectively because whilst battalions will retain three Rifle Companies, each will only have two Platoons - the third being provided by the Reserve.

How mad is that?

FdeP

 

The New Zealanders had a regular replacement draft and also brought men from our 3rd Division over from the Pacific. However, we still converted LAA, AT and even recce units to infantry to deal with our losses. Ironically, we had converted our 4th Bde to armour to suit the conditions in NA but the conversion only finished in time for Italy where we needed infantry more than armour!

 

Alex Bowlby's memoirs are rare in the published history of WW2 as they are those of an enlisted man. The book was rejected 17 times and only published in 1969 by Leo Cooper - tellingly, the publishers asked that he change the title from "All Soldiers Run Away'.

He was, however, a well educated ( ex-public school) young man - although his obituary states he was unhappy at Radley http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1496268/Alex-Bowlby.html and doubtless very articulate compared with his fellow riflemen, although my favourite exchange with some of his mates runs, "To think of all the money your Pa spent on your education," one told him, "and then you end up with us lot. That's what comes of being a capitalist." He suffered from shellshock until his death in 2005.