A visit to eastern Italy in May 2022, an account by Gillian Morrison. Although my travelling companion, Diana, and I arrived in the Abruzzo region on the Adriatic coast of Italy on Friday 29th April, my major quest, and the main purpose of my visit to this area, didn’t start in earnest until Monday 2nd…

The Irish Brigade Films team flies to Italy on 4 July to carry out on-location filming for the final two parts of All My Brothers, a documentary series about 38 (Irish) Brigade in the Second World War. The first six parts covered the Irish Brigade’s role in the campaigns in Tunisia, Sicily, along the Adriatic…

On 30th December 1943, a patrol of Inniskillings was sent out in blizzard conditions from the mountain fastness of Capracotta which, at 5,000 feet above sea level, looks down over the valley of the upper Sangro river. Two men from the patrol to Guidre, Captain Joe Beglin and Corporal David Marshall, would be killed on…

Brigadier Nelson described the background to the Irish Brigade’s assault on the hill top town pf San Salvo, three miles north of the River Trigno close to the Adriatic coast of eastern Italy: “The Bosche did not hold the river line either on the Trigno or the Sangro. His main defences were about three miles…

“At that time, the Trigno was only about 20 or 30 yards wide and generally less than a foot deep. Its mighty bridge, which catered for a raging torrent, was about 600 yards long but about 50 yards was blown in the middle. E Company was sent to relieve the Faughs at the bridgehead. I…

Major Desmond Woods MC joined 2 LIR after the battles near Termoli and was almost immediately leading a patrol forward from Petacciato to guard a newly built bailey bridge over the Trigno river. “Well, to cut a long story short, the Irish Brigade, as it approached the Trigno… the Germans must have got wind that…

In October 1944, the Irish Brigade were involved in desperate fighting north of Florence in the mountainous area near Monte Spaduro. Amongst those present at Spaduro was a young lieutenant, Desmond Fay, who was awarded a bar to the Military Cross for his extraordinary courage: “On 23 Oct ’44, Lt Fay was ordered to take a recce…

Lieutenant Nicholas Mosley joined the 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles (2 LIR) during December 1943 and stayed with the battalion until the end of the war in Italy. He was platoon commander in E Company during the winter period in the Apennines of central Italy before the battalion moved to the Cassino front in March.…