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