Three Years on from Last Post

Yes, I do seem top be moving at a snail's pace, but, exactly 83 years on from the first 16 DLI counter-attack at Sedjenane, I am STILL making good progress with my, hopefully definitive, account of the Battalion's part in the Sedjenane Battle of February 27th-March 4th 1943........ I've been researching mainly in official casualty records for the last few years, this is information that has only been put into the public domain recently. There's been a huge amount of material to go through and to cross reference, but I now believe I have as detailed an account of each stage of the Battle as it's now possible to have. And also a huge amount of information on individual casualties....... I've also gone back into my old informal interviews with B Company veteran Tom Turnbull, which date from 1997, these are a gold mine of information, much of which now makes more sense than it did back then. I have similar informal interviews with several other 16th veterans which pre-date my involvement with the IWM Interview Project. Hopefully those dusty old cassettes will all still play... .......While I've been plodding on, Peter Hart has written Footsloggers, an excellent account of the 16th DLI in 1940-46, based on the extensive IWM interview collection and with many photos taken, with my blessing, from my now 22 year old website!..... Footsloggers is well worth seeking out and there's also a new book on the Sherwood Foresters which includes an account of the Battle from their point or view: Sherwood Boys by Michael Somerville. This incorporates much eyewitness information collected by the late Wally Binch, of the Foresters, who I was in touch with for several years in the early 2000s. ..... Also there's a new big general history of the Tunisian Campaign, Tunisgrad, by Saul David, which, though it gives some unduly short shrift to the Sedjenane Battle, is a very good general account of the larger picture........ I'm working on something in a different vein altogether. My ideas are still evolving, but it probably won't be a commercial venture---far too many words for that. ....... We will see......... As to the website, it is truly ancient now, but it still seems to work and the information and photographs contained therein are priceless. Any future updates will be mainly minor revisions.

Sedjenane, 80 Years On and Book Progress Update

I just thought I would put on record that today marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Sedjenane, in which the 16th Durham Light Infantry suffered huge casualties between 27/2/43 and 4/3/43. There's a wealth of material on my web site relating to the Battle, see previous posts for links to some of the most salient pages and photographs. With the Battalion's Commanding Officer, Lt Col Richard Ware MC and his five Company commanders away on a recce to what would have been the Battalion's new frontline positions when the crisis emerged, the unit was led into action on the morning of the 27/2/43 by the Second in Commands, Major David Bannerman, 2 i/c of the Battalion and the 2 i/cs of the four rifle companies. It was a disastrous start: Captain Denis Stark, commanding the leading Company, 'A' was killed as the very start of the advance, as was his CSM, John Plemper. Capt Derek Clarke, leading the second forward company, 'D' was seriously wounded and his CSM, George Broadhead, was killed. So today I particularly salute their courage in leading their men into what soon turned out to be another veritable 'Valley of Death.'....... I'm still working flat out on the book project, but there's still a huge amount of interview material to transcribe and information to collate, so I would describe the project's current status as just over half way there.... I'm not getting any younger, so the important thing now above all is to get all of this priceless material out of the cardboard boxes and off the ageing cassette tapes and into the public domain before my inevitable demise--when otherwise it will all end up discarded in a skip.... Obviously the IWM interviews I undertook are safely out there to listen to online, but my long, more informal, telephone interviews with Les Bernard, C Coy, Duggie Wakefield, HQ Company, Laurence Buck, 46th Division Signals, awarded the MM and wounded during the Battle and several others, still need to be transcribed. Also I have a huge collection of wartime letters between Sgt Charles Bray, ex D Coy and his Mother, which I scanned from originals loaned by him many years ago. These letters will provide the spine of the narrative in the chapters covering the 16th DLI in Home Forces between 1940 and the end of 1942. I've now got a definitive 1940-1947 casualty listing for the Battalion, including wounded and POWs, or as near to definitive casualty listing as we can hope for after all this time. Also I now have full transcripts of two of my longest IWM interviews, with Sgt Joe Drake MM, who was awarded the Military Medal for his part in the Battle, and Sgt John Lewindon MM, who was with the 16th DLI from the start in 1940 was awarded his MM for his actions at Salerno in September 1943. So, the project continues.........So all that's left for me now is to make the usual plea for the missing 1942 group photographs of 'A' Company, 'C' Company and the various platoons of HQ Company. They ARE still out there somewhere and someone must have them.... The quest continues!

And Finally, My Sedjenane Battle Book Project.

I've just done a general clean up on the website, deleting dead links and tidying up pages. Still a way to go, but it should work and look a bit better now than it did before. I'd forgotten what a big site it is now: the site's search engine is the best way into it. There's probably still quite a few broken and rogue links, but a lost less than before. The software is now so old now (Serif Web 6, copyright year 2000!) that it's becoming very unstable, however I will still be adding the odd item and updating photo captions as appropriate. Next year, February 27th-4th March 2023, will be the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Sedjenane in Tunisia, in which 16 DLI suffered extremely heavy casualties. I'm finally getting around to writing what I hope will be the definitive history of the Battle and have a lot of additional original research and eyewitness testimony which is not on the website. I've got the 'untold story' and the structure of the book, firmly mapped out now in my head, but if there's anyone out there who thinks they can add to it with photographs, documents and the rest, please get in touch. This will be your last chance to contribute to the real story of one of the most costly, most mis-reported--and least understood--battles in the entire history of the Durham Light Infantry. Whether this book is self-published, published by a reputable publisher or simply handed over as a completed project to the relevant museums will be decided in due course. The imperatives of commercial publishing generally result in hastily written and/or sensationalised rubbish, so I will see what I've got when I've got it and decide on the matter then. I hope to have a complete manuscript/narrative by the end of the year. Writing the book also means finally getting around to transcribing the several telephone interviews I undertook with various 16th DLI, No 1 Commando and 2/5th Sherwood Forester veterans in the late 1990s. These were in addition to those undertaken by yours truly for the IWM in 1999-2004 and tended to be more informal. I also interviewed over the phone several veterans who were not interviewed by the IWM, and with the passage of time and WW2 now passing out of living memory, these interviews are even more important now than previously. I aim to have these tape interviews copied as MP3s and passed on to the IWM as part of the project in due course. Which brings me to my usual plea: the 1942 Company photographs of A Company, 16 DLI, C Company 16 DLI, and the various platoons of HQ Company 16 DLI, bar the Mortar Platoon, which is on the site here: http://16dli.atspace.co.uk/page3.html are still lost to history. No museum or archive has them, yet they must still be out there somewhere. I've done my best to caption the photographs I do have, for instance see the B Company 16 DLI photograph here: http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page59.html These missing photographs, and the officers and men featured on them, deserve to see the light of day again after 80 years. The quest to find them continues!

Pte B Di Duca, 16 DLI

I've now added some fascinating and very rare documents to the site relating to the Army career of  L/Cpl Bragia 'Ben' Di Duca, from Hartlepool, Co Durham. 

Ben enlisted in 16 DLI on its formation in July 1940, with the Army number 4466417. He later served in Italy as an Army interpreter with both the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade and the Special Investigation Branch.

The documents posted include: passes for both these organizations, a 1942 markmanship score card for B Di Duca while serving in 17 Pln, 16 DLI, a 1941 16 DLI Christmas Card, a guard roster listing several D Coy soldiers, several pages from his AB64 Paybook, the reference from his 1945 Soldier's Release Book, his Record of Service Card and a detailed ammunition cargo listing for a lorry from Di Duca's time as a driver with 16 DLI.

These pages start here.

It seems Di Duca served in D Company after training so he very well could feature on the 1942 D Company, 16 DLI photograph, which is posted on the site here

If you can spot him, or know anything more about him, please get in touch.

Change to my 16 DLI Website Address

The old address for my 16 DLI 1940-1946 site is suddenly defunct, so from now on the address of the main page will be:

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


Content should mainly be as before.


However, the site was first published way back in 2004 and I'm still using the same ancient software, so there will be quite a few dead links and errors while I rebuild some of the bits that went missing in re-uploading the pages.

Use the site's Freefind search engine to find anything you're looking for that comes up as a dead link.

Pte J B Hindmarch, 4464321, 16 DLI POW Group Photograph

Pte J B Hindmarch, 4464321, was wounded and taken POW at Sedjenane, Tunisia in late February-early March 1943 and was subsequently a POW in Italy, at Hospital camp PG 206 and in Germany, where he was assigned the POW number 6151.

Stalag 18A was one of the camps he was held at in 1943-43. This page of the site has a 1945 group photograph of him and several of his fellow POWs:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page22.html

It's noteworthy that in the official British POW listings, Pte Hindmarch's surname is often mis-spelled as 'Hindmarsh'

As ever, there's plenty of hidden history in this photograph. Any and all further details welcome.

'New' Name Added to 1940 16 DLI Recruits Photograph

Pte J R Richardson, 4465653, is notable as the first fatal combat casualty suffered by the 16 DLI--he was killed in an air raid while on leave in South Shields in April 1941. He has now been identified by a close relative on the 1940 16 DLI Recruits photograph here:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page54.html

Also new to the site is a photograph of his grave:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page18.html

'New' Name Added to 1942 D Coy Photograph

One of the main reasons I put this web site together was in a bid to unlock some of the secrets of the several 1942 group photographs of the Battalion which were taken in 1942 before the unit went abroad.

Five of these are currently on the site: the Officers; the Sergeants; B Coy; D Coy; and the Mortar Platoon, with work-in-progress captions built up for all of these with information supplied by the 16 DLI veterans I interviewed in the late 1990s and early 2000s (sadly all now deceased) and various relatives of 16th DLI soldiers who have been in touch since the web site was first published in 2004.

To all those who have helped with this so far, many thanks.

As I've remarked in several other places on the site and on this blog, the 1942 photographs of 'A' Coy, 'C' Coy and all the platoons of HQ Coy bar the Mortar Platoon, are still lost to DLI history. Where are they?

Also, of the group photographs taken while the unit was in the Middle East in early 1944, only the photographs of HQ Coy, C Coy and the Signal Platoon, which are on the site, seem to have survived. Where are the others?

If you have any of these, let me know!

The World War Two era is now passing into beyond living memory, but it is possible even now for identities to be fixed by close relatives. This is the latest example:

Pte Clement Ross Ackroyd, 4470369, from Oldham, who was reported wounded and missing at Sedjenane, Tunisia 27/2/43 and who became a POW in Italy and Germany in 1943-45, has now now been placed by a relative on the 1942 D Coy photograph here:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page60.html

16 DLI Carrier Platoon, Updated Photo Caption, 1945

The 1945 photograph of the 16 DLI Carrier Platoon on this page of the site:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page19.html

has now been updated with a new caption which identifies many of the men featured. The annotated version of the photograph can be seen here:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page273.html

DLI Other Ranks Army Numbers 1939-45

I've now done a major revamp on the DLI Army Numbers section of the website and added a consecutive listing of known DLI fatal casualties, POWs and gallantry awards for DLI Other Ranks who were assigned the eight figure, 14200001 and upwards, Army General Service numbers, which were introduced in mid-1942. This section begins here:

Consecutive General Service Durham Light Infantry Numbers, Fatal Casualties, Prisoners of War and known Gallantry Awards, 1942-1947.


I've also updated the landing page for the DLI Numbers section of the site and added a series of new links to existing sections, which should make it easier for novice DLI researchers to put a specific DLI World War Two Other Ranks Army number in context. The new landing page is here:

Other Ranks WW2 Consecutive DLI Numbers

16th Bn DLI Old Comrades’ Association, 1945, Name and Address List

I've now transcribed the 1945 16 DLI Old Comrades' Association name and address booklet which was printed in Austria in 1945 and which contains the names and home addresses of over 600 officers and men who were serving with the 16th DLI in the immediate aftermath of WW2. I've also cross-referenced this with the two later editions of the booklet,1946 & 1947, which add many further names, into one unified listing.

Many of these names also feature as part of various photo captions elsewhere on the site, but many more do not.

Help in matching these names to photographs already on the site and any and all further information about these soldiers gratefully received.

I am especially keen on placing more men who were with the battalion from the start in 1940 and also those who joined as reinforcements from other DLI battalions in 1943-44.

The booklet index page starts here:

http://16dli.atspace.co.uk/page25.html

16 DLI Guestbook, Missing in Action

The 'Freebok' guest book I have been using for my 16 DLI and 16 DLI POWs websites since 2004 has suddenly disappeared as of 3/15. I'm considering installing a replacement, but in the meantime, any interested parties can contact me direct with any 16 DLI queries and comments at:

thomas.tunney@btinternet.com

Or leave a comment on this blog.

Bad Schmiedeberg, April 30th 1945

It's now exactly 70 years since American and Soviet forces simultaneously arrived in the town of Bad Schmiedeberg. The US troops were a fighting patrol consisting of two tanks and one truck load of infantry from the 2nd Battalion, 413th Infantry Regiment of the 104th Infantry Division and Company B of the 750th Tank Battalion. The Soviet troops were from the 118th Ukrainian Division.

My father, Pte Thomas Tunney, ex-16th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry and his friend, Driver Benny Lewis of the Royal Army Service Corps, were the only two British prisoners of war left in the town by this time and witnessed their arrival and subsequent celebrations in the town square.

I had hoped, over the 11 years this website has been functioning, that somebody out there might have further detailed memories or even photographs of this event.

This hasn't proved to be the case thus far--I still live in hope! However, back in 1998, I did hire a researcher in Washington DC to find the requisite After Action Reports of the 104th Infantry Division for this day and this information, plus my father's eyewitness account, can be read beginning on this page of the site:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page30.html

This is the exact quote from the 30/4/45 After Action Report which is also on the website:

OPERATIONS

‘The division assumed responsibility for an additional sector to the south, relieving elements of the 69th Infantry Division. All regiments patrolled east of the Mulde River, and contact with the RUSSIAN Allies was continued on the Elbe River. The division defended its sector, checked rear areas and conducted training, maintenance and rehabilitation.’

413th Infantry

‘Continued to maintain defensive position; 1st and 2nd Battalion patrolled in platoon strength motorized to Elbe River. 2nd Battalion contacted RUSSIANS, 118th Infantry Division, at BAD SCHMIEDEBERG (4554). 1st Battalion contacted RUSSIAN outposts at DOMMITZSCH (5650). No resistance going out or coming back.’

750th Tank Battalion

‘2 tanks from each platoon of Company B supported patrols from 1st and 2nd Battalions, 413th Infantry.’

16 DLI Mortar Platoon Photograph, 1942

A 1942 group photograph of the Mortar Platoon, HQ Company, 16 DLI is now posted on this page of the web site:

http://16dli.atspace.co.uk/page3.html

Thanks to Steven Henderson, the son of of ex-Mortar Platoon Sergeant J C Henderson, for passing on a copy of this extremely rare picture. More photographs and information on Sgt Henderson's wartime career with 16 DLI, all courtesy of Steve, can be read from this page:

http://16dli.atspace.co.uk/page2.html

The importance of this long-lost photograph is that it finally proves to me that there are other official group company and platoon photographs out there to discover of the 16th DLI taken in 1942 before the Battalion went abroad.

1942 official (that is sanctioned, organised and paid for by the battalion for distribution to Officers and Other Ranks) group photographs of

B Company,

D Company,

the Battalion Sergeants

and the Battalion Officers

have surfaced and are already on the site and can accessed from the 16 DLI Photographs Index page, here:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page51.html

Captioning these photographs is still an on-going process! All were taken by the Folkstone firm of Lambert and Weston in either Rye or Winchelsea. The photographs that are still missing and lost to 16 DLI history are:

the 1942 group photograph of:

'A' Company,

the 1942 group photo of

C Company

and the 1942 photographs of the other various HQ Company specialist platoons.

It's interesting that the Mortar Platoon photograph is taken at exactly the same location as the

1942 Sergeants' photograph,

with very distinctive bay windows as a backdrop.

16 DLI HQ Company numbered around 250, which was very large for a single group photo, so it's likely that photographs of the specific specialist platoons were taken at this same location and in the same manner as the Mortar Platoon, namely:

the 1942 16 DLI

Signal Platoon

Anti-Aircraft Platoon

Carrier Platoon

Pioneer Platoon

Administration Platoon

Anti-Tank Platoon

Again I appeal to anyone who may have any of these pictures, or who can place further faces on those already published on the site, to get in touch.

The history of the 16th DLI will be so much the richer if these long lost photographs can be shared, captioned and allowed to tell their otherwise long-lost stories.

16 DLI War Grave Photographs

Latest update to the site is a collection of over 30 large format photographs of 16 DLI war graves in Italy and Tunisia. Special thanks to Chris Craggs for taking these pictures and allowing me to post them on the site. The updated 16 DLI War Graves index page is here:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page20.html

16 DLI and the Salerno Landings

Though you would hardly know it from the BBC and much of the mainstream media's complete lack of coverage, today marks the 70th anniversary of the Salerno Landings, when 16 DLI and the rest of the British 46th Infantry Division went ashore on mainland Italy as part of the US Fifth Army in what was, to that date, the biggest ever amphibious operation.

Already on the web site are the following:

Photographs and documents relating to Major A E C Vizard, who led A Company 16 DLI into action on the first morning of the landings:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page302.html

'Prelude to Salerno', a 1945 poem about the landings by 16 DLI CSM W 'Jimmy' James:

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

A copy of the beach head newspaper The Salerno Times, dated 16/9/43, which which was kept as a souvenir by Capt Gordon Harris of the Signal Platoon,16 DLI:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page284.html

Padre G Meek's memories of 16 DLI's Salerno Regimental Aid Post:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page88.html

And a brief potted history of the first days of 16 DLI's mainland Italy campaign:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page98.html

16 DLI, Sedjenane, March 2nd 1943

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the final 16th Battalion Durham Light Infantry attack on the hills to the north of Sedjenane, Tunisia, on 2/3/43. The battalion suffered appalling casualties in both this and the initial counter-attacks on 27/2/43 and was effectively destroyed as a fighting force with little more than 100 men left from the four rifle companies by the evening of 2/3/43.

There's already a large amount of material on the website regarding the Battle of Sedjenane. This is the index page for the section:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page180.html


Four of the most poignant and powerful items on the site are these:

A montage of local press photos of 16 DLI Sedjenane fatal casualties:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page20.html

The 1942 16 DLI Sergeants photograph, which features the three rifle company Company Sergeant Majors killed in the Battle and several other casualties. The photograph also features Sgt Joseph Drake, who was awarded the Military Medal for his actions on the 3/3/43 in the aftermath of the 2/3/43 attack:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page149.html

The 1942 B Company photograph, which has one of the most detailed captions of those on the site. The caption tells its own grim story. And again many of the soldiers so far identified were killed or made POW on 2/3/43. Others faces still need to be placed

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page59.html

The 1942 D Company photograph, which includes Pte G Leadbitter, who was awarded the Battalion's first Military Medal, for his actions on 2/3/43. Many faces on this photograph still need to be placed:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page60.html

Somebody out there must have the missing 1942 photographs of A Company, C Company and HQ Company, 16 DLI and these photographs will also feature officers and men whose names and stories deserve to see the light of day again--even after 70 years. Where are there? The quest continues....

The Troopship MV Staffordshire, Liverpool, Christmas Day 1942

It's now exactly 70 years since the troopships Staffordshire and Derbyshire sailed from Liverpool on Christmas Day 1942. British Army units board the Staffordshire included the 16th Battalion Durham Light Infantry and the 70th Field Regiment, RA. Aboard the Derbyshire units included the 2nd/5th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. These are links to material already on my web site relating to the sailing of the ships on Christmas Day 1942:

Reminiscences of Christmas Day 1942 by C/Sgt W James, D Coy, 16 DLI.

A December 1942 Letter from the Troopship Staffordshire by Pte T Tunney, C Coy, 16 DLI.

A New Year's Day 1943 poem by C/Sgt W James, D Company, 16 DLI.

Memories of Christmas Day 1942 by CSM George Gates, HQ Coy, 16 DLI.

A signed 16th Durham Light Infantry Officers' Christmas Dinner Menu for 25/12/42.

16th DLI War Graves Photographs

I've now added a new section of the site with large format photographs of several 16th DLI war graves. I will be adding many more photographs to this section in due course.

Courtesy of ex-CSM W 'Jimmy' James, who revisited the Italian battlefields several times in the 1990s and 2000s, I have a good selection of photographs of CWGC 16 DLI headstones in Italy. However, I have none for the casualties suffered in Greece in 1944-45 and only a very few for the casualties suffered in Tunisia in 1943. Also there are several 16th Btn casualties who were buried with CWGC headstones in the UK, who died either prior to or after active service overseas.

If anyone reading has such photographs, your own work only please, large format, full headstone composition, I would be very keen to place them on the site--fully credited of course.

The new section starts here:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page20.html

The Password is Courage, My Detailed Book Review

I've now added a POW and DLI Book Reviews section to the site where I will post detailed reviews of books focussing on the British POW experience during World War Two. Three book reviews have been posted thus far:

The Password is Courage, by John Castle,1954

The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz, by Denis Avey and Rob Broomby, 2011

Stalag Doctor, by I Schire, 1956

Obviously when reading and reviewing such books, I will be paying particular attention to where these particular POWs feature in my consecutive listing of German POW numbers and thus who else was there and thereabouts with them on the day their POW numbers were issued.

The new DLI and POW book reviews index page is here:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page10.html