The Quiet Gunner at War

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Belville, Feb 18, 2012.

  1. Belville

    Belville Senior Member

    (Also posted under 'Royal Artillery'. It's too good to miss.)
    A new book, and an excellent one! Richmond Gorle, M.C., R.A. fought through North Africa and Sicily, and then in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with 128 and 181 Field Regiments, R.A. He died in 1971, having written the manuscript for his family in 1958, and it has been edited by his son, Peter. It's published by Pen and Sword.

    Belville
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. Varasc

    Varasc Senior Member

    Very nice cover. I'll try to buy a copy in England. Thanks!
     
  3. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I just picked up a used copy of this. I wasn't sure whether to get it because I've seen it around a lot (possibly remaindered?) but the shop had a chair and I sat down to read bits of it for a few minutes. I was immediately taken by the quality of the prose and am glad that I bought it.
     
  4. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    It is excellent and a little controversial in places.

    Gorle was, for a short time the SO2 RA 7th Armoured Division (CRA's senior staff officer). His story is that he was unwanted as the CRA Brigadier Roy Mews only wanted staff officers with prior 7th Armoured Division experience. Gorle felt the CRA had no confidence in him and under took the fire-planning himself. Gorle resigned about a week or so later, the a day before the CRA resigned himself following the sacking of the Divisional Commander Erskine.

    Gorle's picture of his short service with 7th Armoured Division paints an alarming picture of the artillery within the division. The 7th Armoured Divison had their own nicknames and codewords for artillery procedures not used outside. There also was an alarming lack oif confidence by the infantry of the accuracy of the guns. A fireplan supporting an attack is stopped because the infantry report they are being shelled by their own guns. The fire is stopped - but the shelling continues. Then the penny drops: its German artillery. Given the reliance of British infantry artillery fire this may indicate one of the reasons for the poor performance of the 7th Armoured Division, and the high AWOL rate of the 131st Infantry Brigade. This may have just been gossip by a disgruntled officer. The episode does not appear in the war diary- but this kind of screw up might not be. The war diaries for HQRA 7th Armoured Division and HQRA 30th Corps for June-July 1944 are missing.

    I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I wonder if the war diaries and other papers were not extracted for some form of gunner inquiry. Under performance in battle by the 7th Armoured Division might be seen as a particular embarrassment for the Gunners as the artillery of the 7th Armoured Division were both prestigious regular RHA regiments rather than the territorials and yeomanry reservists that were the field artillery for the rest of 21 Army Group. Much of the attention of the failings of the 7th Armoured Division have focused on the failings of the armour. Gorle's accoutn suggests that all was not well with artillery cpo-operation either.
     
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  5. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I don't think that is the first time I've read of the Germans trying to use their artillery at the same time as a British bombardment to disrupt an advance. Can't for the life of me think where I read about it. Possibly with regard to Canadian operations in Normandy?

    Anyways thank you for the insights.
     
  6. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    It isn't really a co-incidence that the Germans fired defensive fires at the same time as the allied fired supporting the assault!
     
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