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5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
5th Battalion, Royal Gloucestershire Regiment was a territorial unit, they served with 144th Infantry Brigade, 48th Division. In January 1941 they converted to become 48th Recce Battalion.
21st May 1940 Shelling
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Want to know more about 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment? There are:1319 items tagged 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Sgt. William George Andrews 43rd Reece Regiment Reconnaissance Corps    My father Bill Andrews was a member of the 43rd Recce Regiment, here is a bit of information that I have managed to glean.
He enlisted in the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment, he had told them he was a year older than he actually was, saying his date of birth was 20th of Jan 1919 (really 1920 as he was under the minimum age to join up at that time).
My cousin Tony Cocks told me that dad was rescued from Dunkirk.
The boat he was rescued by was torpedoed and he was then rescued by another boat.
On D-Day, he landed at Sword beach and went through Normandy (through what was called the Falaise Gap to Seine) and was involved in heavy fighting around Vernon, a little town on the Seine between Rouen and Paris.
They were the first to cross the Seine and had to build three
pontoon bridges because the Germans had blown up the bigger bridges to
stop tanks coming across.
They battled there for 3-4 days before they managed to take the town, this happened around 22nd of August 1944. They were a group of around 40, which included Gilbert Folley (who provided this information in an article in The Citizen newspaper in August 2000).
Other persons that Gilbert remembers in the group were Sammy and Bill
Moreland, the quartermaster Major Benny Vigrass, Hal Bagwell (the
boxer from Gloucester), Walt Critchley, Douglas and Desmond Scarr
(from Cheltenham), Jumbo Gardiner (from Dursley)and Tom Carter from
The Forest.
Dad was released from service on 2nd of April 1946, his testimonial on
the release document was: An extremely hard working and conscientious
man who can be relied upon not only to work on his own but to get
others working with him. He has a good practical knowledge of M.T. A man of clean and sober habits he has a
pleasant personality and is a good athlete. Military Conduct: Very
Good.
Dad went on to serve in the Territorial Army, enlisting on the 25th of May 1948 and being released on 24th of May 1950.
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Pte. James Beattie 5th Btn. Gloucestershire Regiment Jim Beattie was held as a PoW in Stalag 344.
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Harold Douglas "Deane" Deane 5th Batallion Gloucester Regiment Story Submitted to local newspaper.
Sir - It was very interesting to read the story of the 5th Glosters retreat from Ledringham prior to their evacuation form Dunkirk in 1940.
I would, if I may, like to add one or two facts to that story! I was, on that day, one of a party of six men in a trench on the edge of the village, waiting for the German attack. On the previous evening we had taken part in a bayonet charge in the main street of Ledringham, also hoping to dislodge a sniper from the church tower.
The next day, however, we dug our trench and settled in. By late afternoon things seemed to be very quiet. Then at dusk, we heard a motorcycle approaching.
It turned out to be Pte. B. Johns, our despatch rider, who had come to warn us that the Battalion had pulled out of the village hours before. We were to make our way, as best we could to the coast.
Darkness was falling and the windmill (mentioned in your story) was almost destroyed, the church was ablaze and we made our way through a field of red cabbage with German tracer bullets slicing through the cabbages at regular intervals. In retrospect, rather a funny sight!
Having picked up one or two stragglers, we made our way, without a map towards Dunkirk, with the instinct of a homing pigeon.
Marching on through the night we arrived just after dawn, a mile to the east of the town to be taken off some 30 hours later by a destroyer.
Others may have their own stories to tell, but I thought this might be of interest to some of your readers. We did not all escape the bed of the brook as Mr Walter Lord suggests in his book "The Miracle of Dunkirk"
H. D. Deane
(late 51849561 5h Battallion, Glos. Regiment)
He died in 1994
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Pte. Maurice James Hughes 5th Btn. Gloucestershire Regiment (d.11th April 1941) Maurice Hughes was in the 5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and was captured, it is thought, after Dunkirk. He was next heard of in Stalag 5B in Villigen Schwartzwald, in hospital. He died aged 20 on 11th April 1941.
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Cpl. Ernest Reginald John Kyte 43rd Recce Regiment (d.24th Jun 1944) My Grandfather Jack Kyte died when the MTS MV Derrycunihy exploded with huge loss of life.
My father and brother visited the British Cemetery at Bayeux several times and found his name on the memorial.
We haven't much info about his army career (as my father was only 10 at the time and can't remember so much about him).
We are aware of some of the events leading up to the tragedy but little afterwards or whether any items were ever retrieved in the years that followed.
I have tried unsuccessfully for many years now to find a copy of the book "Record of a Reconnaissance Regiment, a history of the 43rd Recon Reg (the Gloucester Regiment) 1939-45" but a copy remains elusive.
If anyone knows where I could get a copy, my father would appreciate it.
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