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

Sgts Danny Feasey and James Hood MM 16 DLI

I've now added several pages telling the fascinating story of Sgts Danny Feasey and James Hood MM. Both were ex Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment NCOs, who were with the 16th DLI from 1940.

Both were captured at Sedjenane in February 1943. They escaped while en route from Camp PG 82 to Germany. Feasey was later recaptured. Hood eventually regained Allied lines and was awarded the MM. They did not see each other again until 1987 and the new pages also include some 1987 newspaper coverage of their reunion. The item begins on this page:

http://powbooks.atspace.co.uk/page29.html

German POW Numbers Circa 139000 and 153000

The latest addition to the site is an updated sequence of consecutively arranged German POW numbers assigned to British Army Other Ranks arriving from Italy in September 1943. As before, I am concentrating on DLI men but I have included a sampling of men from other units, particularly those with adjacent numbers to the DLI soldiers.

The numbers in the 139000 sequence include that assigned to to my father's friend and platoon mate Norman Cook, who was with him in Camp PG 53 and who is mentioned in almost all of his surviving correspondence from that era. Also included are B Coy 16 DLI Sergeants Gascoyne and Greaves, who, with adjacent POW numbers, obviously stuck together during their time as POWs.

The numbers in the the 153000 sequence also include several 16th DLI Sedjenane POWs, including Sgt Charles Bray, ex-D Company, Sgt David Friswell and Syd Shutt, ex-B Coy, of Thornley Co Durham.

The 139000 sequence begins on this page:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page80.html

And the 153000 sequence on this page:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page260.html

All of these men were at Camp PG 53 prior to their transfer to Germany.

16 DLI Signal Platoon 1945, New Detailed Caption

There's been a 1945 photograph of some of the Other Ranks of the 16 DLI Signal Platoon on the site for a while now. I've now updated it with a full listing of names, courtesy of information supplied by the daughter of Pte T H Gaffney, who joined the Battalion as part of a reinforcement draft in early March 1943.

The new updated caption is on this page:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page135.html