Wednesday 17 June 2009

A Photograph of Three 16th DLI NCOs at Blida, North Africa, 1943

This isn't exactly a new photograph, as it's been on the site as a small illustration in the Concise History pages for a while. However, I've now made up a page for an enlarged version of it, here:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page289.html

The NCOs featured are: Colour Sergeant John Crosby, who was killed in action in September 1944, Cook Sergeant 'Sibble' Battle and CSM W 'Jimmy' James. I've also linked the photo to the small version illustrating Jimmy James's excellent poem about the Salerno Landings, which is already on this page:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page242.html

Thursday 11 June 2009

An 'A' Company 16 DLI Sedjenane POW

The latest photographs and documents added to my 16 DLI site are of Pte Percy Wilson, who was in 'A' Company of the 16th Battalion Durham Light Infantry when he was wounded and taken POW during the Battle of Sedjenane, on 27/2/43. These are courtesy of his son, Barrie. Included in the new pages are an early war photograph of Pte Wilson in service dress, a postwar photograph in battledress with two unidentified DLI friends, his service record and a copy of his AB64 paybook entry which notes his posting from 4 ITC at Brancepeth to the 16th DLI on 11/4/42. The items begin on this page:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page285.html

Pte Wilson will probably also feature on the longlost 1942 company photograph of A Company, 16 DLI which must still be out there somewhere....

I've also been steadily adding names and numbers to the Army Numbers and Stalag 4B Numbers sections of the site. Percy Wilson's number, 4468279, can now be seen in the broad sequence of DLI '446' numbers on this page:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page15.html