22 Jan 44 Track - Minturno Cemetery corner to Point 172.

 

 1 KOYLI War Diary 

19 Jan 44 – 1000 

Our initial task was to clear the village of Tufo, standing high on a ridge above the assembly area and then to push on to Point 201 to the North of Tufo. A large barrage of all the Corps Artillery plus a Medium Regiment had been laid on to support the attack. Unfortunately, this barrage had been decided upon before the infantry plan had been fixed and it did not in fact quite fit the ground as seen from the ground and not from a map. The attack as it was put in had the barrage on the left flank to start with, gradually moving away as the attack progressed. Not only this but the attack had to go in at 1000 hours to fit the barrage which did not in fact give the Battalion enough time for preparation, recce and forming up. Whilst directing the barrage Captain K. Ashdown, 92 Field Regiment Royal Artillery, who was the Forward Observation Officer was hit by one of his own shells and subsequently died of his wounds.

 Route of 1 York & Lancs. 14 - 18 Jan 44

Royal Artillery and the Coldstream Guards 22 Jan 44

 3 Coldstream Guards War Diary

22 Jan 44 – 0630 

Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. W.A.G. Burns MC and his group left the Assembly area. They went to the Battalion HQ of 1 Green Howards which were in slit trenches behind Tremensuoli. The HQ was under intermittent shellfire and aerial bombardment.

98 Field Regiment Royal Artillery War Diary

22 Jan 44 – 0650

SOS Category continuous: 471 Battery report strong counterattack making progress coming up road 781969 and at 780968 [Santa Maria Infante road, a kilometre North of the Cemetery]

Major G.H. Peile Adventures of 392 Battery, 98^th Field Regiment (1945 IWM)

“On January 22 after a long and exhaustive recce by the Commanding Officer, the position of the Observation Posts, which had been obscure, had ended by Capt. Palmer manning the Observation Post with the Battery Commander, with the Battalion Commander of 3 Coldstream Guards, as the Regiment had now taken over support of 201 Guards Brigade, then under command of 5 Division..  

The position was extremely unpleasant.   The Coldstreams had their Battalion H.Q. in Tremensuoli, which was being subjected to constant shelling and mortar fire, and the O.P. was in a very muddy slit trench rather than in advance of the Front Defence Lines.   This O.P. was manned alternately by Capt. Palmer and Capt. Stride.   During the next four days some excellent shooting was done both by the forward O.P. and the rear O.P., the latter being able to engage hostile Batteries which could actually be seen firing.   The whole of the forward position was overlooked.”  

 

German Position 17 Jan 44 as they saw it!

 German Position 17-23 Jan 44 as the Germans saw it.

German tanks coming from Santa Maria Infante. 22 Jan 44

 22 Jan 44

The German tanks were coming down this road from Santa Maria Infante. 40 Royal Tank Regiment had to stop them getting to this corner of the Cemetery. (Photo John Strafford)

Ortona, Italy. December 1943.

 

Ortona, Italy.   December 1943.   1 York and Lancs. were based just west of here at this time.

Michael Pare:

The artist was Major Charles Comfort, an official Canadian war artist and member of the Group of Seven. He painted this in London from his sketches in November 1944. It is part of the war artist collection of the Canadian War Museum.

It shows tanks of the 14th Canadian Armoured Regiment (Calgary Regiment) passing through Piazza Plebiscito in Ortona.