Operation Partridge

Operation Partridge was a raid carried out behind German lines on the Mediterranean coast of Italy on the night of 30th/31st December 1943. The Allied unit involved was Number 9 Commando.

There are two accounts available online, as far as I can tell, a very superficial one carried by Wikipedia and a slightly more detailed version that I found on an Italian language website through a comment made on WW2 Talk by user vitellino in a thread on maps in the Italian campaign (thank you, vitellino!) This was helpful and allowed me to use Google Erath, etc to see where the raid took place. It still left a lot of questions unanswered.

I have started the process of getting the relevant pages of the unit war diary from TNA and I have also found a document available through IWM.

While I am waiting for these to arrive, I wonder if anyone has any special knowledge of this operation or any other sources I do not yet know about.

Here are four of the men who died, Francis Balneaves, Duncan Dundas, George Wilson and Francis Lewis:

 

There are summaries on: Partridge | Operations & Codenames of WWII With some photos too: Operation Partridge – laststandonzombieisland

A quite long section within: No 9 Commando - A Brief History

A snippet about their piper: Tpr. Daniel J.J. Laing British Army 46th (Liverpool Welsh) Btn. Royal Tank Regiment The Wartime Memories Project

May be you have these already? I only searched with the operation name and this is the first time the operation has appeared here.

 

Many thanks for your interest, David. I had seen the first two but the bit about the piper is fascinating! There's a story about two groups of Commandos identifying each other at night behind enemy lines by playing the bagpipes which I thought was absurd but now I am not so sure! But it's just the sort of detail I love so will try to follow up with the man who posted it.

In case it's of interest to you or others, here's what I have already:
Gilbert Reid Neilson
Usual caveat, it is written for people who might be related to the man who died and/or people from my local area so assumes minimal knowledge of military history.

 

Found this article

 

I did not know that, thank you - his home address is only a couple of miles away from me.

 

I have the No. 9 Commando War Diary that I can provide at a fraction of TNA cost, although honestly, the online accounts have the operation report in its entirety, so I don't think you'll find any new information on the narrative.



3 Coldstream Guards and 2 Scots Guards (201 Guards Brigade) were also involved in this operation - their role was to secure the southern bank for when the commandos arrived to cross.

This is the map from the No. 9 commando WD on which others are based.





Aerial reconnaissance photos of the two crossing points (these are not in the WD). first on is the railway bridge - you can see the Roman amphitheatre. The CWGC cemetery is located next to this.



The mouth of the river, amphitheatre and bridge at the top.

 

Many apologies for being so slow to reply to this and thank you for the information you provided. If only I had read it sooner! As you say, the war diary does not help very much AND I paid "full price" for it - duh! I was looking for the war diary for 4th Special Service Brigade but cannot see it on The National Archive site; do you know if there is one?
The attachments you provided on your message are excellent, may I use them in an update of my post, please, suitably attributed?
Kicking myself for not reading your message at the time ...

 

4 Special Service Brigade - Headquarters | The National Archives, although 9 Commando was under the command of 201 Guards Brigade for this operation.

 

Thank you. I feel like there must be a report somewhere - trying to learn my lesson from last time, do you happen to have a copy of the 201 Guards Brigade diary for this period?

 

From the Commando Veterans Archive website www.commandoveterans.org

CAMERON, Ralph Alverne Cyril | ͏

and others on commandos linked to Operation Partridge:

Pages that link to Italy - Operation Partridge | ͏