Challo, please find the attached from the Regimental History of the South lancs Regt, which covers the period of time that your father served with the regiment. (Part 1)
THE SEVENTH BATTALION
Formed at Warrington on the 4th July 1940, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Whalley-Kelly. With major L.W. Potter as second-in-command and Captain H. F. M. Maidment as adjutant, the 7th Battalion became a unit of the 204th Infantry Brigade, charged with protection of vulnerable Points and general Home Defence Duties.
After taking in its new personnel, shaking down and doing some training, the battalion took over the Skegness sector of the East Coast Defences from the 8th Battalion of the regiment early in January, 1941, were it was responsible for an area of coastline approximately eleven miles in length, nearly all of which contained beaches suitable for assault landings, while the ground inland, for a depth of about five miles, was suitable for parachute landings. This single fact gives some indication of the great danger which faced this small island immediately after Dunkirk and the appalling weakness of our resources on the ground. However as we know, invasion never came, and the 7th Battalion, with others, was able to more and more systematic training as the danger receded, and in June 1942, it was at Tow Low in County Durham, by now a thoroughly trained and integrated machine. It was while the battalion was at Tow Low that the welcome intelligence was received that it was to mobilise on tropical scales of clothing, and was to be prepared to move early in July. At the same time Lieutenant-Colonel H. A. Bateson was posted from the 9th Battalion to take command vice Lieutenant-Colonel Whalley Kelly, major R. A. A. Downs became second-in-Command, and Captain R. J. J. Moore became adjutant.
Preparations for the impending move went ahead, all ranks had their embarkation leave, and the battalion moved by route march to a new area at Aycliffe, near Darlington, where it was accommodated in the Aycliffe School in comfortable and modern quarters, which were a change from the bleak lack of amenities at Tow Law. Shortly before the battalion left Aycliffe it was visited by the band of the 1st Battalion, which stayed for nearly a week and played a series of concerts, all ranks dances, cocktail parties etc., which will be long remembered by those who took part in this essentially regimental reunion. Orders for the move overseas came at the end of August and on the 23rd of that month the battalion embarked at Liverpool in the transport ‘Dominion Monarch.’ And left the Clyde in convoy on the 31st August.
The destination of the ship was not as yet known to the troops but it soon became apparent that it was not the Mediterranean, as the convoy headed south and down the African Coast. Freetown was reached on the 9th September, and on the 25th the ship entered Capetown Harbour, where the troops were allowed to go ashore and where they experienced the wonderful South African hospitality which became a legend of the Second World War for all troops who went ashore at Capetown or Durban. After leaving Capetown it was given out that the destination was Bombay. This information was received with mixed feelings, and enthusiasm was not increased when it became known that the battalion was earmarked for internal security duties at Jubbulpore. After two days in Bombay, where the battalion disembarked on the 18th October, it went by train to Jubbulpore, with one company detached at Nagpur. History was repeating itself, as it has such a curious way of doing so with regiments of the British Army, for Jubbulpore, as it will be remembered, had seen much of the regiment in the past.
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Topic: ww2 Burma/India (Read 4248 times)