5393352 Private Walter Bagnal MORTON, 5th Bn Essex Regiment: 8 December 1943

Dear all.
Anyone have information on Essex Reg. 5th battalion if they were in combat at Ortona Italy.

My uncle was killed on 8th Dec 1943 and is buried at Ancona war cemetery.
Any information or confirmation is very helpful.

 

5th Essex were in 19th Brigade, 8th Indian Division .
Some background reading here to start you off.
Table of Contents (ibiblio.org)
One More River - The Story of the 8th Indian Division : Unspecified. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
I know some members have The Essex Regiment history & I think one or two have the 5th Essex war diaries.
I hope they can help.

 

Owen. Thankyou so much for your response. I look forward to reading the links you have provided.
If anyone us will to provide access to the war diaries if possible.

I am very grateful for any information provided.

Thankyou

Tony.

My uncles name is Walter Bagnal Morton. He was born in 1924 Birmingham and he remains at Ancona War Cemetery Italy.
He lost his life 8th Dec 1943.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2068409/walter-bagnal-morton/

 

I have this photocopied map in a folder from when I visited the area back in 2008.
I don't know where the original came from.
It'll show you the route of 8th Indian Division in that area marked in the solid line.

 

I'm at work at the moment (working hard or hardly working?). I think I have the 5th Essex section of the regimental history copied, so I'll send you a link by private message ('Conversations') when I get a few minutes.

Edit: Yes, I have it copied.

 

Thankyou

 

Tony.

On 5 Dec 43, 3/8 Punjabs moved up from the Sangro plain where they have been providing working parties to improve river crossings and roads. They took up a position covering the road west of Lanciano. 1/5 Essex occupied the north western boundary of Lanciano and 3/6 FF Rifles went into reserve around the area of the Lanciano road junction. Here they stayed from 5-9 Dec 43.

Pte WB Morton was killed whilst 1/5 Essex were in these positions.



Regards

Frank

 

Message sent.

You quite likely want to consult the battalion War Diary for the period. It is held--if it hasn't appeared online--at the National Archives in Kew.

These are the references:

Reference: WO 169/10209
Description: 5 Essex Regiment
Date: 1943 May- Dec.
5 Essex Regiment | The National Archives

Reference: WO 170/1387
Description: 5 Essex Regiment
Date: 1944 Jan.- June
5 Essex Regiment | The National Archives

You shouldn't attempt to approach the National Archives themselves to supply copies since the costs are exorbitant. There are researchers on this board and elsewhere who will do the same job for a fraction of the price.

Be forewarned that War Diaries do not routinely name Other Ranks, although they often provide more specific data that the official histories about what was happening around the time a man died.

Do you know when your uncle joined the unit?

 

Tony.

Here is the page from the 1/5 Essex WD:



Regards

Frank

 

I followed up a hunch and remarkably I have some useful specifics:

Extracted from:
WO 361/885 Italy Essex Regiment Missing Men



In case your eyes are as bad as mine:



The official history says on p.395 that Lieutenant N. L. Starkey was 'rounded up' by the enemy with his platoon from Z-Coy on what looks like 23/11/43.

Pte Dawson's death is also given as 8/12/43.

I am wondering whether they died in enemy hands or escaped and were killed.

 

Frank,

Do you have the pages for 22-23-24 November 1943?

 

James.

Only Dec 44.

Frank

 

My grand father Ernest Bentley was in the 1/5th essex regiment x coy .He was in Italy .He was captured in that area maybe at bit later I've never really researced this.He was shooting anti tank guns.There wasn't many left of them at the end of the war.

Andrew Ryan

 

Hi Charley - not sure if I'm allowed to chime in but I also had a relative that died in Italy who was in 5th Essex Regiment on December 19th 1943. I would also love to read the reg history you have if that's possible please? My relative was LCpl Arthur Cooke

 

(image from findagrave.com)

 

Yes, I will message you after work.

 

Thank you

 

There are a small number of threads here id'd in an online search: "5th essex regiment" + "italy" site:ww2talk.com A few more when using: "5 essex regiment" + "italy" site:ww2talk.com some are POW-related

A few more when using: "5 battalion" + "essex regiment" + "italy" site:ww2talk.com

Changed to: "ortona" + "essex regiment" site:ww2talk.com finds some too

The town / city of Ortona was taken by the Canadians, in bitter street fighting and features in several threads here.