Anyones family served in the Colfstream Guards in ww2?



Butcher's Coat said:
As far as I know - the DLI marched at the same speed as the Royal Green Jackets - the RGJ marched at 140 paces per minute (at a 30" pace) whereas other regiments marched at just 120.
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Quotes in the film mcvicar , by one of the prison officers , Tony haygartb I think , DLI fastet marching regiment in the British army

Yankee Mackem said:
Ok, so 1st (armoured), 4th (tank) or 5th Bn.
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My old man would probably know , visited his grave in Belgium, try and visit the besom pub in coldstream they have a display of regiment memrobilla
 
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millfield ftm said:
Quotes in the film mcvicar , by one of the prison officers , Tony haygartb I think , DLI fastet marching regiment in the British army


My old man would probably know , visited his grave in Belgium, try and visit the besom pub in coldstream they have a display of regiment memrobilla
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If you know his name I can tell you now.
 
Yankee Mackem said:
Yes, Tunisia and Italy. I've inherited various stacks of maps and papers from people associated with the regiment and was interested if there were any others who had a relative served. I know they have a Sunderland branch and wanted to see howhat common it was....
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I had a relative from my dads side with 1st Battalion The Black Watch as part of the BEF during pre-Dunkirk events in France (St Valery) and ended up a PoW, and another one with the 5th Battalion Black Watch during North Africa campaign, Sicily and then Italy... both survived.
My granddad (mothers side) worked for Philips at time they got occupied in Eindhoven and they turned the lightbulb factory into making munitions, so grandad and his mates used to make as many dodgy casings as they could :cool:

If someone from your family was with Coldstream Guards in that period (Tunisia and Italy) then its fair to say that they didn't have the best of times! I believe they lost that many after defeat at Tobruk that they had to pretty much start afresh by the time they re-joined their Brigade to then take part in the Italy invasion a few months later at Salerno? (Sicily invasion was June 1943, Salerno landing from 9th September 1943)
 
UZZA_SPARTA said:
I had a relative from my dads side with 1st Battalion The Black Watch as part of the BEF during pre-Dunkirk events in France (St Valery) and ended up a PoW, and another one with the 5th Battalion Black Watch during North Africa campaign, Sicily and then Italy... both survived.
My granddad (mothers side) worked for Philips at time they got occupied in Eindhoven and they turned the lightbulb factory into making munitions, so grandad and his mates used to make as many dodgy casings as they could :cool:

If someone from your family was with Coldstream Guards in that period (Tunisia and Italy) then its fair to say that they didn't have the best of times! I believe they lost that many after defeat at Tobruk that they had to pretty much start afresh by the time they re-joined their Brigade to then take part in the Italy invasion a few months later at Salerno? (Sicily invasion was June 1943, Salerno landing from 9th September 1943)
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That was the third battalion. Fortunately the home battalion was overpopulated so they could rebuild it fairly quickly. After a stint in Syria they returned to take part in the advance through Libya and Tunis with the eigth army. The 2nd Battalion was in the first army and landed in Algeria in 42.
 
LondonBlackCat said:
My mother's father was in the Durham Light Infantry, somehow never got shipped abroad.
Dad's father was called up right in the last months of the war and did two years in India with the Royal Corps of Signals.
Great uncle served in North Africa with the Inniskilling Fusiliers, got very badly wounded and that was the end of the war for him.

There's no doubt many others but haven't got the records to hand.
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Got this wrong, my mother's father was in the Northumberland Fusiliers. I've still no idea how he managed to go the whole war without a deployment, especially considering elements of the Northumberland Fusiliers served in almost every theatre!

Add to that:
Two great uncles in the Royal Navy
One great uncle in the King's Own Scottish Borderers
Great aunt in the WAAF
Grandmother's cousin in the Cameron Highlanders, killed in Dunkirk

Love a bit of family military history.
 
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I had an Aunty kicked out of the women’s army during the Second World War for being ‘immune to discipline’. She pretty much walked to the beat of her own drum!
 
Yankee Mackem said:
Pm me his name there's a very small chance he's in one of the company lists I have from the 2nd or third battalion.



You know if he was in a tank (1st and 4th bn) or infantry (5th)?
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Not 100% on the bn but sure if was infantry.
 
In WW1 my great grandad was in the 1/7th battalion DLI, the prewar Sunderland territorial battalion commanded by Colonel Vaux that was nicknamed "Vaux's Own". He was killed on 24th May 1915 at Bellewaarde Ridge, the last battle of Second Ypres. "That day while the battalion was in the line, the Germans launched another serious attack (the Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge) on Whit Monday (24 May) preceded by a gas cloud and the front line was overrun. Vaux ordered his men to get out of the trench and stand up to avoid the low-hanging gas cloud, and gathered other men who were retiring from the front line, telling them, 'It's no use running. Come up here and sing a hymn'. They stood on the parapet and sang Abide with Me as the cloud passed by". This was the Miracle of Ypres and there was a huge painting of it made after the war that hung in Vaux's brewery and is still apparently in the hands of the Vaux family. My great grandad's on the DLI panel on the Menin Gate.
 

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