Sunday, February 2, 2025

On This Day 2 February 1944 - Italy "They won't shell at night!

 On This Day 2 February 1944 - Italy "They won't shell at night!

“A” Squadron 16/5 Lancers War Diary

2 Feb 44 - 1830

“C” Squadron arrived and took over our positions and harboured next door to us.   The Squadron Leader warned Maj. Elwes about the shelling, but Maj. Elwes said “Oh, they won’t shell at night, so I’ll dig in in the morning.   Alas, they were fateful words, because from 0200 nobody got any sleep, owing to the noise of all the Artillery around us firing and the enemy’s replies, some of which landed very near, and one dud (luckily) shell landed in the area.   We are told “C” Squadron dug very deep the next morning!   During the night, our knocked-out tank had been taken over the bridge, after some good work by Sgt. Dadford and the crew of the Armoured Recovery Vehicle to get it down to the bridge.


No comments:

Post a Comment

On This Day 4 February 1944 - Italy - The Last Journey!

  Feb 44 was the day Ernest Strafford’s “Body recovered, identified and buried by British Troops” .    We now know that the only British sol...