Uncle killed in Tunisia - 93rd Anti-tank Regt RA (6th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders)

Hello everyone!

I am hoping someone on here can help me. My great uncle, John O'Neill, was a Gunner with the 93rd Anti-Tank Regt, 6th Bn. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when he was killed Jan. 31, 1943. The really sad bit, besides his death, is that his wife had just given birth to a little girl, Mary Rose. She was barely a year old when he died.

I'm looking for info on what was happening at that time when he was killed. I've looked at other sites, but there hasn't been much help. I hope that maybe someone on here was either there or a parent was there. Who knows, maybe someone recognizes the name! I know it's a lot to ask for, but you never know unless you do.

Laura

P.S. If anyone happens to know where John's daughter is now, we're looking for her as well. My grandfather hasn't seen her since he returned from the war.

Casualty

 

peskipksee
Don;t know why the Argyll & Sutherlands are being mentioned on this thread in connection with this chaps death as they didn't get to Algeria until March '43 with the main reinforcement to Torch of Nov '42- as the gunner was killed in January - unless of course he had started out as an Argyll and then transferred - do you have his service records - Drew can have the war diary copied for the 93rd A/T unit
might be the fastest way to go as the records are taking 12 months
Cheers

 

CWGC is showing the full unit title as 93 (6th Bn. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) Anti-Tank Regt

Gunner John O'Neill 2981468



93rd Anti-Tank Regiment (The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders)


The 93rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery was formed from The 6th Battalion of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in November 1941. They joined the 5th Corps of the 1st Army (sometimes known as the D-Day Dodgers), fighting in Tunisia, Sicily and though Italy.


*******************************************************

I wonder if it possible to track this down -

[C.H. Bogart, 'The 93rd Anti-Tank Regiment'. AFV News, Vol.32, No.1, January-April 1997, p.8].


April 1943 - reference to 17 pdrs of "T" Battery, 93rd Anti-Tank Regt R.A.




and what the heck is:

Tea Time Interruption, North of GOUBELLAT, TUNISIA, 31 January 1943 (appears to be a nickname for the action of the 72nd AT Regiment when they destroyed a Tiger Tank - also may be nicknamed "One for the Trophy Case"

 

Dave B
didn't know they were spawned from the Agile and Sufferins -as they landed much later we live and learn -

while the 5th Corps did indeed fight in Tunisia with 1st Army -and Sicily and Italy with 8th Army it wasn't until D Day in France that the 8th Army were called D Day Dodgers as we had nothing to Dodge until June '44...
Cheers

 

He joined the army as an Argyll & Sutherland Highlander before the conversion to 93 Anti-Tank Regt. He has a service number from the block allocated to the A&SH.

 

Many infantry battalions were converted to anti-tank regiments of the Royal Artillery.

They were generally allowed to keep their infantry dress and badges, and include their infantry name in brackets in their RA regiment's title.

However, they became RA. They were corps transferred to RA, which meant their postings were managed by AG 6 (RA offrs postings branch) and RA Records (RA soldiers postings branch). In other words they no longer belonged to an infantry regiment as far as the army was concerned. The officers, of course, had to pass a conversion course before being accepted into RA.

 

I really hope this doesn't turn into another situation where various contributors offer assistance and we never hear back from the OP.......

I'm reaching out to get some more info from a library interstate and I hate to think I'm wasting my time.

 

I have the Battalion/Regts history. If I've not posted the pages around the time of his death by the middle of next week send me the link in a PM as a reminder

 

Sorry to everyone who replied that I haven't been on here in a while, I've been slowly getting more info from my grandfather about John.

John did indeed join early, 1939 in fact. I've also learned a few interesting stories about him during his service and I'm hoping to get my hands on his service record as soon as my grandfather fills out the forms.

Apparently, when they were doing the first march through Paisley and my grandfather stood at the side of the road watching, one of their neighbours who had signed up with John saw my grandfather and used his thumb to point back over his shoulder, indicating that John was part of the 6th btn and not the 5th who marched ahead.

This is one of the most interesting stories my grandfather told me: John was at Dunkirk. He and his buddy were together and they were found by a priest who gave John a small egg that had been woven out of some sort of wood. Inside this egg was a rosary. When they came across the priest again, the man had been killed by a shell. Later on, I'm not sure if John and his friend had been separated from the others, an officer told them to change into civilian clothes. "Just get out of those uniforms and get into local attire!" the officer apparently said. "If the Germans see you out here, they might just shoot you on sight!" John and his buddy changed post haste and were able to get home via St. Valery on a fishing boat of all things!

I'll have to see if there are any photos my grandfather has so I can get them on here, but I was able to get his war grave photo. I'll post it below.

 

​

​

2981468 Gunner​

J. O'Neill​

93rd Anti-Tank Regt. R.A.​

6th BN. The Argyll​

And Sutherland Highlanders​

31st January 1943 Age 24​

 

31st Jan 1943 was a relatively "quiet" day on the First Army front in Tunisia..the CWGC states that "only" 16 men were killed that day from various formations and only one from 93rd Anti Tank). It was about 10 days after some major German assaults north of Bou Arada, and there was a slight lull. Of course, Stukas were roaming pretty freely at that time.

War diaries and official history may highlight something..good luck.

Richard

 

Owen


You are right about learning even in my old age as I had known all about the 1st and 8th Battalions of the Agile and Sufferins but the 6 & 7 Battalions had not stood out in my memory - now they might

Cheers

 

Welcome back Laura - as alluded to in my previous post, I contacted the curator of a professional library interstate that holds a copy of the unit's war history as published in 1949.

They were kind enough to scan the chapter covering the period in question, I'm no expert on the campaigns of that time but it appears to produce more questions than provide answers.

His unit was spread out across multiple locations and higher commands - split up into individual troops & batteries.

If you are intersted I will post it onto this thread and hopefully others with more knowledge of what ensued can fill in some of the blanks.

 

Thank you so much, Dave!

If you're able to, I would love if you would post it. I am interested in anything to do with the time of John serving. Instead of questions, it may give a few answers. My grandfather is starting to follow this closely and goes through my username to view any posts about his old unit and also this post, so I know he will be reading it with gusto. Still trying to get photos, but he guards them like treasure and I'm really not surprised about that.

I am getting one step closer to the service records as well. Just have to get grandpa to sign them and the other two requests for his other two brothers who served as well, one in the air force and the other in the navy. I'm hoping that once I have John's records and my grandfather and I go through them, I can post them up here.

 

Cheers Laura - I am attaching the scanned pages.

Page 45 shows a guide to the locations of the various elements of the unit around the time of the loss in question. The text is not very linear and dates are assumed, but there is mention of the injury to an officer (& other casualties) around the end of January at one of their sites.

It might take a few read-throughs to get a full impression of what was going on with the unit but it looks like various troops were attached to French & American formations at times.

The last page is the unit Roll of Honour.


Hopefully one of the artillery / North Africa gurus will jump in with further info.



Failed with loading the pdf document due to size limitations - I have chopped it into smaller chunks and saved the pages as JPG files, I hope they work......

 

As Dave mentions., 93rd Anti Tank were attached to various units throughout the early 1943 period, but looking at the narrative, there's quite a bit mentioned about their support to 6th Armoured Division during early/late January. Ken Ford covers that period, but only mentions 93rd Anti Tank during Feb 1943.

The attacks on "Two Tree Hill" - one of a number of features to the east of the Bou Arada to Goubellat road. 10th Rifle Brigade (with armour/artillery support) attempted unsuccessfully to recover the hill on 11th Jan 1943 and this was followed by another bloody thwarted assault by 6 Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers the next day.. Following these misguided attempts the Germans chopped down the trees. The mud "took the blame", but army command had some questions to answer too...

"Grandstand Hill" - to the west of Two Tree overlooking the main Goubellat to Bou road. German assaults on this feature commenced on 19th Jan, and this was followed by a counter, counter advance on 20/21 Jan by the 6th Armoured Division to push out their front into "no mans' land"..it was an absolute disaster for the attacking forces, including 2 London Irish Rifles, who suffered over 250 casualties in a single day.

"Robaa" - south of Bou Arada. the French had been "loosely" holding this area, which included some pretty decently sized hills, from Dec onwards, and the Germans saw this as a weak point in their counter flanking assaults.

Of course, the Feb 1943 period saw some massive German assaults right across the Tunisian front..Kasserine etc but this falls out of the range of your research.

I would think it will prove difficult to find out precisely where your great uncle, John, fell but given his final resting place is at Massicault, it might be speculated that he might have been killed in the northern sector north of Bou Arada. Pure speculation, of course...

On the daughter. of course you have the widow's and daughter's first names (although they could have both (re)married later) and a north eastern England home town so that might start you off.


Good luck.

 

Hi , I believe my Grandfather George McKee may have been in the same unit as your uncle . My Grandfather was 5/6th Argylls and transferred to 93rd after Dunkirk. I believe he also escaped from Dunkirk fishing boat. Perhaps we could compare notes ? I appreciate this is an old post but would love to have a chat if you are still around.

 

Hello George
original poster last on forum Nov 2016

i have sent them a message on your behalf



regards
Clive