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- They Shall Not Grow Old – 1 London Irish Rifles
- They Shall Not Grow Old – 2 London Irish Rifles
- War Diaries of 1 London Irish Rifles
- Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers – “The Skins”
- At Rest in Rome and Egypt
- In Sidi Bishr
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- With the 5th Army
- Plan to capture Imola
- The Spaduro battles
- The Rains come
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- San Clemente
- And with the Skins and Irish Rifles
- Clamping Down for the Winter
- With the Faughs
- Raid on Casa Tamagnin
- Continuing in the Mountains
- Goodbye to the Mountains
- The Beginning of a New Phase
- Preparing for the Final Battles
- Senio Floodbanks
- London Irish Raid on the Floodbank
- Visitors to the Irish Brigade
- St Patrick’s Day in Forli
- Ready for Action
- The Last Offensive – The Plan and Opening Phase
- The Po and the End of the War
- Northern Italy
- Into Austria – Settling Frontiers
- Balkan Troubles
- Postscript
- Irish Brigade Awards: May 1944 to March 1945
- Irish Brigade Awards: April to July 1945.
- December 1942
- February 1943 (1)
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- January 1943 (1)
- January 1943 (3)
- April 1943 (3)
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- 38 (Irish) Brigade – November 1942
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- 38 (Irish) Brigade – June 1943
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- 38 (Irish) Brigade – August 1943
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- April 1943 (1)
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- 38 (Irish) Brigade – December 1943
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- 38 (Irish) Brigade – January 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – March 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – April 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – May 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – July 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – August 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – September 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – October 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – November 1944
- 38 (Irish) Brigade – December 1944
- Officers’ Roll : November 1942 to December 1943
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- April 1944
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- April 1944 (1)
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- Officers’ Roll : Nov 1942 to Dec 1943
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- Point 286, Tunisia – Jan 1943 by Lt-Col Jeffreys
- Lieutenant Nick Mosley at Monte Spaduro
- The Skins in Sicily
- Percy Hamilton – On Route to Africa
- Percy Hamilton – To The Front
- Percy Hamilton – Djebel Mahdi
- Percy Hamilton – Tanngoucha
- Percy Hamilton – Advance To Tunis
- Percy Hamilton – Guelma/Hammamet
- Percy Hamilton – Arriving in Sicily
- Percy Hamilton – From Centuripe To Randazzo
- Percy Hamilton – To Mainland Italy
- Percy Hamilton – Termoli
- Percy Hamilton – Crossing the Trigno River
- Percy Hamilton – Assault on San Salvo
- Thursday 4th November 1943 (1)
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- Saturday 6th November 1943
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- Tuesday 23rd November 1943
- Friday 25th November 1943
- Monday 28th November 1943
- Captain David Schayek – March/April 1943
- Colin Gunner at Argenta
- Ted O’Sullivan joins the London Irish Rifles
- Day 2
- The making of Rosie
- Training at Wimbledon
- Invasion alerts
- From Lowestoft to Haverfordwest
- Onto Goodwood
- Joining the Irish Brigade
- Operation Dryshod and ready for War
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- Entering Tunis
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- Crossing the Sangro River
- Interlude at Campbobasso
- Meeting the new OC
- German raid at Montenero
- In clear sight of Vesuvius
- Defensive positions at San Angelo
- Ascending Monte Castellone
- The Liri Valley
- North of Rome
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- Hospitalised in Alexandria
- Out of the Line
- Back to the London Irish at last
- Resting in Forli
- St Patrick’s Day
- From Argenta to Austria
- Peace at Last
- Home on Leave
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- The Atomic Sergeant Major
- RQMS Edmund O’Sullivan goes home
- Irish Brigade at Termoli, October 1943
- Termoli. 5/6 October 1943
- Campaign Narrative
- Unit Accounts – 11 Brigade
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- 78 Division
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2 LIR – October 1944
THE centre of gravity in the fighting seemed to pass to the Eighth Army front by October 1944. With a little more strength the Allied Armies might have accomplished more in the attack towards the River Po before the autumn and winter rains set in, but it was revealed by General Alexander afterwards that some American and French Divisions had been withdrawn from Italy for the attack on the south of France and this had weakened his forces. To drive the Germans from the Po Valley during the winter could hardly be expected.
Nevertheless there was work to be done, and when the Irish Brigade returned to Italy they went to Monte Capello, an important height in the mountains between Florence and Bologna and looking down the Po Valley. The weather was most depressing, and for the first part of their stay the battalion had an uneventful time. A turkey farm was started at B Echelon, with an eye to the approach of Christmas. The turkeys were supplied by companies that had found birds willing to give themselves up in order to get fat on Army fare! When the battalion left Monte Capello the farm consisted of twenty turkeys and six fat geese. The London Irish moved to Apollinare on October 19 in readiness for the attacks by the division on Monte la Pieve and Monte Spaduro. Pieve had already fallen and the Royal Irish Fusiliers, who had preceded the London Irish, were on the edge of Spaduro. After a gallant but costly attempt the Faughs had been forced back by heavy counter-attacks, and the London Irish were ordered to have a go.
The Pieve and Gesso Ridges were joined to the lower Spaduro feature by a narrow neck of knobs which fell sharply away on both sides to deep gullies. These knobs were numbered Point 401, Point 416, Spinello Farm, and Point 387. Then came a semicircular chain of knife-edged bumps leading to the main height of Spaduro.
The attack was planned for midnight on October .21-22, with the semicircular chain and Point 287 as the objectives. F, G, and H Companies went forward with gun support, but unexpectedly heavy fire from Spinello on the right forced them to take cover in a wadi. Their position was seen by the enemy and they were compelled to remain behind the reverse slope all day within a curtain of protective fire from our guns and mortars. A further attack was made in the afternoon with the help of E Company, who marched round to take the enemy from the left flank while F Company tackled Spinello. The effort nearly succeeded. H Company fought hand-to-hand up the slopes north of Point 387, but lost heavily in a counter-attack. All the officers except the Company Commander, Major W. Craig, were killed, and the platoons had to give up the ground gained. The cross-fire from Spinello still caused trouble, and the strongly entrenched Germans there resisted all the efforts of F Company though one officer and a sergeant reached the walls of the farm before being killed. The decision was then made to withdraw H and F Companies to cover behind Point 416. With G Company giving covering fire this was done without more casualties.
It was clear that nothing could be done about Spaduro from that side until Spinello fell. The battalion had now been in the line nineteen days with a break of only one night, and had done two major attacks. For thirty-six hours they had lived on haversack rations. Two of the companies had lost heavily, but Support Company and battalion headquarters had been lucky. Next morning a patrol, consisting of Lieutenant D. Fay, M.C., Sergeant Farthing, and two riflemen, went out to ascertain the strength and positions of the enemy in Spinello. By a most daring feat of arms they captured a German on the outskirts of the farm, and obtained valuable information. Immediately a plan was made for E Company to capture the farm area, which they accomplished with fire support. Later, as F Company went up to help hold off a counterattack, they passed into a minefield and two officers, Major R. W. Boyd, M.C., and Lieutenant J. Bruckmann, and two other ranks were killed. C.S.M. Kelly, D.C.M., took over the company and the farm area was held. That same night other battalions attacked Spaduro from the left flank and the height was finally captured. The London Irish took well-deserved credit for a part of this success because they had distracted the enemy’s attention and drawn most of their fire. The Divisional Commander and the Brigadier emphasised this point in complimenting the battalion later on its work. The London Irish losses were five officers killed (Major R. W. Boyd, Lieutenant S. Thompson, Lieutenant V. Bryning, Lieutenant J. Bruckmann, and Lieutenant C. Cramb). The last two were South African officers seconded to the battalion, One officer, Major Davies, was wounded just as the attack on Spinello was assured. Fourteen other ranks were killed and fifty wounded. Sergeant Farthing unhappily died of wounds.
The morning after the successful operations, G Company took over Point 387 from a company of the Inniskillings and found Sergeant Sye, who had been lying wounded for more than thirty-six hours. He had refused the aid of stretcher-bearers, but finally had been unable to make his own way back. He died of his wounds the next day.
The London Irish went back to Apollinare to rest. The fighting on Spaduro had been as bitter as anything in which the battalion had taken part. The enemy had obviously been told that they had to hold Spider, and did their utmost to obey orders. One of the outstanding features of the battle was the fine support given by the three-inch mortars and the Vickers machine-guns. On one day, October .23, the mortar platoon fired one thousand four hundred mortar bombs.