Association Newsletters. 2.
If you are not in receipt of the WFRA ENewsletter and have internet connection,please contact
RHQ Mercian Nottingham (newsletter@stand-firm-strike-hard.org.uk ) and we will send you the ENews update.
THE WORCESTERSHIRE AND SHERWOOD FORESTERS REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION
Patron: HRH The Princess Royal
President: Brig P Dennis
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08 March 2024 WFRA NEWSLETTER Volume 15 Issue 10
OBITUARY 24539398 Pte Stephen John Mapletoft It is with great sadness that we report the death of Stephen John Mapletoft who died on Monday 26 February.
Stephen served with 1WFR in the Mortar Platoon and was discharged on 10 November 1995. Stephen holds the GSM NI and UN Cyprus medal.
The details of Stephen's funeral will be published when known.
SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING
A Thanksgiving Service to celebrate the life of the late Brigadier R G Silk CBE is to be held at Repton School at 10.15 am on Sunday 23rd June 2024.
This will be followed by refreshments in the 400 Hall Theatre Foyer: Brigadier Silk's family extend a warm welcome to all.
For catering purposes, those who wish to attend are asked to notify Ian Silk (i.silk@icloud.com) before Friday 7th June. Further details will be promulgated in due course.
001 WORCESTER BRANCH AGM
Worcester Branch are holding their AGM on Tuesday 26th March at Barbourne Ex Services Club, The Moors, Worcester . WR1 3ED.
Starting at 19.30hrs.
If anyone has any Nominations or Resolutions contact Nigel Fish
nigelfish@ymail.com
002 COMPANY OF MAKERS - WARHAMMER 40K MARATHON Into Warhammer? Then read on... Company of Makers are holding a Warhammer 40K Marathon on Sunday 24 Mar 2024 from 08:00 - 19:00hrs. To book you place follow the link below.
Book Free Tickets Location
Darkstar Gaming 9 Moon Street Plymouth PL4 0AL 2000 point Army Singles Tournament 1000 point Army Doubles Tournament Warhammer newbies/spectators welcome
Singles Tournament Rules format: 10th edition rules Points: 2000 points
Doubles Tournament Rules format: 10th edition rules Points: 2 players, 1000 points each per team. Any faction can be used.
Proxy models: They are allowed, provided the proxy is on the same size base as what it's standing in for, and looks like what it's supposed to be it's fine.Games Workshop (GW), terrain layouts will be used and missions specified for each round by the T/O (Tournament Organiser). Standard 10th edition rules apply using the leviathan rules from the rule book and mission cards. No legend units are to be used.
Painted Models: There are no penalties for unpainted models. Army list submission can be done using battlescribe and submitted using the link provided to the Best Coast Pairings app (BCP). This will ensure that lists are correct before entry. The event will be ITC ranked. The signed up players will be sent a BCP Link to enter their list.
What will I need to bring? You will need an army with the correct points (2000 or 1000 points) for the tournament you will be playing. You will also need the relevant Codex for your army, dice, tape measure and leviathan card deck.
Timetable 08:00 Doors open 08:00-10:00 Breakfast Buffet 08:00-09:00 Check-in and Setup 09:00-11:30 Round 1 11:30-12:30 Lunch - Social meetings and greetings. 12:30-13:00 Grace period for late timings. 13:00-15:30 Round 2 15:30-15:45 Break 15:45-18:15 Round 3 18:15-19:00 Scores, Prizes & Presentations 19:00 Ends
003 ARTWORK FOR SALE
The artwork below showing officers of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment is for sale. If you are interested please contact stanley.cocker@gmail.com
004 BOOKS FOR SALE
I have more books that have very kindly been donated for me to sell in support of raising funds to meet the costs associated with keeping my website www.rememberthefallen.co.uk ,online.
All are in good condition and all are available for a reasonable donation. Some of them are currently for sale on various websites for amounts between £10 and £25 so there are bargains to be had!!
I have taken photographs of the books so if you would like to see any particular book, just let me know, likewise if you would like any additional information on a particular book: 11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour
1914-1918: Voices & Images of the Great War
1918 A Very British Victory by Peter Hart
1918 War and Peace
Alarm Starboard
Book of the Somme Malcom Brown
British Butchers & Bunglers of WW1
Bullets Bombs & Poison Gas paperback
Bully Beef & Biscuits: Food in the Great War (New)
Cambrai 1917 The Myth of the First Great Tank Battle
Despatches from the Western Front
Destiny in the Desert
Dominating the Enemy: War in the Trenches 1914-1918
First World War Posters paperback
First Ypres 1914: The Graveyard of the Old Contemptibles paperback
For Love & Courage: The Letters of Lt Col E.W. Hermon
General Sir Richard Dannatt: Leading from the Front
How Wars are Fought
Irishmen in the Great Wart Reports from the Front 1914
Letter to the Unknown Soldier
Putty: From Tel-El-Kebir to Cambrai
Somme Harvest (paperback)
Somme The Heroism & Horror of War
The Battle of the Somme Gerald Gliddon
The Best 500 Cockney War Stories (paperback)
The First World War: The Mediterranean Front (paperback )
The First World War: An Illustrated History (paperback)
The Great War Peter Hart
The Great War Explained
The Greater Game Sporting Icons Who Fell In The Great War
The Journey’s End Battalion (paperback)
The Old Front Line John Masefield (paperback)
The Public Schools Battalion in the Great War
The War the Infantry Knew
They Were There: Memories of the Great War
To the Last Man Spring 1918
With the S.A.S. & Other Animals (New)
World War One S.R. Gibbons (paperback)
Yours Ever Charlie: A Worcestershire Soldiers Journey to Gallipoli (2 copies)
If you are interested in purchasing any of these books please contact Sandra Taylor using the contact form on her website. www.rememberthefallen.co.uk
005 THE MERCIAN REGIMENT CHARITY GOLF DAY 2024
THE MERCIAN REGIMENT CHARITY GOLF DAY 2024
Friday August 16th 2024.
RUFFORD PARK GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB
ENTRY FORM
General Information. Many Thanks for your continuous support to this annual Event. All money which is raised goes to supporting the Benevolent Fund of the Mercian Regiment. The intent is to run this year's event as I did in 2023 with slight amendments. The golf competition will take place during the day followed by an evening event which includes any guest you may wish to invite.
Entry Cost: I enclose a cheque for £160.00. Cheques made payable to ‘RHQ MERCIAN’ The entry fee for a team of members from Rufford Park golf Club will be £110:00. Please send all entries and Cheques to the address at the bottom of this entry form.
Format: The format of the day will be: 18 Hole stableford individual and team prizes, plus 4 nearest the pin prizes and 2s sweep. Maximum Handicap is 28 for Gentlemen and 36 for Ladies
Entry price also includes bacon roll and coffee on arrival, plus an evening hot and cold buffet meal during the evening function. Players can purchase extra tickets to the evening celebration party for family and friends £15:00 per Ticket. Evening Entertainment is to be confirmed.
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Team Name:
Team Captain Contact Details: Name
Phone Number: Email
Player 1 HCP Player 2 HCP
Player 3 HCP Player 4 HCP
Extra Tickets for the evening event are £15 Per Ticket
Indicate Preferred Tee Time. Tee Timings will be notified the week before the event
0800-0900
0900-1000
1000-1100
1100-1200
1200-1300
Signed: Date
Entries Submitted to:
Lt Col (Retd) K Seddon
8 Forest Road
Warsop
Mansfield
Notts
NG20 0ER
Tel 07739 210 584.
006 110th ANNIVERSARY DINNER
Building on the huge success of the 100th Anniversary Dinner, this email is to invite you to commemorate the 110th Anniversary of the start of the First World War at a dinner on Saturday 17 August 2024, 1900 for 1930hrs at the Worcestershire Golf Club. Dress is black tie. Proceeds will go to SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity.
At £65 per person, the Dinner will comprise a welcome drink, four course dinner with wines and port, coffee. There will be a number of respected speakers, including Dr. Spencer Jones FRHistS, Senior Lecturer in Armed Forces & War Studies, University of Wolverhampton and the Royal Artillery's resident historian, to talk about aspects of the War.
I do hope you will attend. Please let me know and I can arrange tickets. I would also be very happy to discuss sponsorship or discounted tables. Please do spread the word - flyer attached - perhaps put a table together?
For further details and tickets please contact Tim Kidwell via email kidwelltg@gmail.com
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01 March 2024 WFRA NEWSLETTER Volume 15 Issue 09
OBITUARY 23257496 BDSM Peter Vaughan It is with sadness that I inform you that BDSM Peter Vaughan of Worcester passed away aged 86 on the 17th February 2024 at Worcester Royal Hospital. Peter enlisted into 1st Battalion the Worcestershire Regiment at Worcester and trained at Norton Barracks. At 1st Battalion he was a Bandsman playing the euphonium. Peter went on to serve in Germany and went to Jamaica on the troop ship Dilwara.
In civilian life Peter worked as a toolmaker at Metalbox Worcester.
In his spare time Peter was a member of a few brass bands that he enjoyed playing in. Peter`s funeral will take place on Wednesday 6th March 2024 at 11:30hrs. Worcester Crematorium,Tintern Avenue, Astwood road, Worcester. WR3 8HA.
Standards, Bugle and members welcome.
Afterwards members are welcome to the New Inn at Claines Worcester WR3 7DH
OBITUARY It is with great sadness that we report the death of Mary Caiger, wife of the late Col John Caiger, of the 1st Staffords on 9 Feb 24 aged 87.
Beloved Mother to Jonathan, James and Charles, Grandmother and Great Grandmother. Mary's funeral service will take place at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Stoke Lacy on Friday 8th March at 12 noon.
Enquiries to Emma Bouston Funeral Services, 3 New Road, Bromyard HR7 4AH (01885 489 900).
FUNERAL DETAILS FOR 4987704 CPL GRAEME TODD The funeral for Graeme ‘Sweeney’ Walter TODD, who died on 18 February 2024 (details on Issue 8), will take place on the 13 March at 1130 hours at Markeaton Crematorium, Markeaton Lane, Derby DE22 4NH. This will be followed by a wake at 1230 hours at the Markeaton Pub, Kedleston Road, Allestree, Derby DE22 2TF. The family have requested no flowers and have decided on donations that will be given for Alzheimer’s and the Lifeboat Association Standard Bearers have been requested by the family and all members of the WFRA are invited to attend. If anyone is able to attend, they are asked to let Mrs Todd know, for catering purposes, annetodd5@ntlworld.com.
AMENDMENT TO THE OBITUARY OF PTE LUCAS Following on from the Obituary of Pte Lucas in Issue 8, please note that Pte Lucas was born in Bicester and not Banbury.
001 UPDATE FOR CYPRUS UN 60th ANNIVERSARY EVENT The Cyprus High Commission to the UK intends to host an event to mark the 60 years of UNFICYP’s presence in Cyprus and to honour the British veterans who were the first to serve in Cyprus. The High Commissioner is seeking to find members of Sherwood Foresters who were in Cyprus in 1964 but who only for those participated in UNFICYP Mission, not in any other tour or mission in Cyprus. The High Commissioner is keen to make contact with any of our veterans who fit this bill, or their descendants. It is proposed that the event will be held on the afternoon of Thursday 21 March 2024 at the Cyprus High Commission in London. Due to limited capacity, please note that invitations will be shared at a later stage.
Any Sherwood Foresters, or their descendants, who meet this criteria and wish to attend, are asked to contact the Assistant Regimental Secretary cindy.clark247@mod.gov.uk by no later than Wednesday 28 February
002 TREATY OF WORCESTER 1218 IN 2024
003 WORCESTERSHIRE NORTON GROUP - APPEAL FOR HELP
A community group have got together and done a fantastic job of raising funds to buy the lease on the old Sergeants Mess by the barracks. This had fallen into serious disrepair and now work has started to bring this important building back to life. The shell of the main mess building is left but work to the interior and the changing rooms is underway.
It is expected to be completed by September this year.
They already have a few items, paintings etc but we would like to source more. In addition we also want to install a couple more information boards but they are struggling to find any original images of anything connected to the mess, it's events or men that used it.
If anyone can help please contact Cheryl at thenortonsentry@gmail.com
004 THE BATTLE OF MONTE CASSINO - PART THREE Plans For the third battle, it was decided that, while the winter weather persisted, fording the Garigliano river downstream of Cassino town was an unattractive option especially after the bad experiences in the first two battles. The "right hook" in the mountains had also been a costly failure, and it was decided to launch twin attacks from the north along the Rapido valley, one towards the fortified Cassino town and the other towards Monastery Hill. The idea was to clear the path through the bottleneck between these two features to allow access towards the station on the south and so to the Liri Valley. The British 78th Infantry Division, which had arrived in late February and been placed under the command of the New Zealand Corps, would then cross the Rapido downstream of Cassino and start the push to Rome.
None of the Allied commanders were very happy with the plan, but it was hoped that an unprecedented preliminary bombing by heavy bombers would prove the trump. Three clear days of good weather were required, and for twenty one successive days the assault was postponed as the troops waited in the freezing wet positions for a favourable weather forecast. Things were not helped by the loss of Kippenberger, who was wounded by an anti personnel mine and lost both his feet. He was replaced by Brigadier Graham Parkinson; a German counter attack at Anzio had failed and been called off.
The battle The third battle began 15 March. After a bombardment of 750 tonnes of 1,000 pound bombs with delayed action fuses, starting at 8:30hrs and lasting three and a half hours, the New Zealanders advanced behind a creeping artillery barrage of 746 artillery pieces. Success depended on taking advantage of the paralysing effect of the bombing. The bombing was not concentrated only 50 percent landed a mile or less from the target point and 8 percent within 1,000 yards but between it and the artillery shelling, about half the 300 paratroopers in the town had been killed. The defences rallied more quickly than expected, and the Allied armour was held up by bomb craters. Nevertheless, success was there for the New Zealanders' taking, but by the time a follow up assault on the left had been ordered that evening, it was too late, defences had been reorganised, and more critically, the rain, contrary to forecast, had started again. Torrents of rain flooded bomb craters, turned rubble into a morass, and blotted out communications, the radio sets being incapable of surviving the constant immersion. The dark rain clouds also blotted out the moonlight, hindering the task of clearing routes through the ruins. On the right, the New Zealanders had captured Castle Hill and point 165, and as planned, elements of the Indian 4th Infantry Division, now commanded by Major General Alexander Galloway, had passed through to attack point 236 and thence to point 435, Hangman's Hill. In the confusion of the fight, a company of the 1/9th Gurkha Rifles took a track avoiding point 236 and captured point 435, while the assault on point 236 by the 1/6th Rajputana Rifles was repelled.
By the end of 17 March, the Gurkhas held Hangman's Hill point 435, 250 yards from the monastery, in battalion strength although their lines of supply were compromised by the German positions at point 236 and in the northern part of the town, and whilst the town was still fiercely defended, New Zealand units and armour had gotten through the bottleneck and captured the station. However, the Germans were still able to reinforce their troops in the town and were proving adept at slipping snipers back into parts of the town that had supposedly been cleared.
19 March was planned for the decisive blow in the town and on the monastery, including a surprise attack by tanks of the 20th Armoured Regiment working their way along an old logging road the "Cavendish Road" from Caira to Albaneta Farm and from there towards the abbey. However, a surprise and fiercely pressed counter attack from the monastery on Castle Hill by the German 1st Parachute Division completely disrupted any possibility of an assault on the monastery from the Castle and Hangman's Hill, while the tanks, lacking infantry support, were all knocked out by mid afternoon. In the town, the attackers made little progress, and overall the initiative was passing to the Germans, whose positions close to Castle Hill, which was the gateway to the position on Monastery Hill, crippled any prospects of early success.
On 20 March Freyberg committed elements of the 78th Infantry Division to the battle, firstly to provide a greater troop presence in the town so that cleared areas would not be reinfiltrated by the Germans, and secondly to reinforce Castle Hill to allow troops to be released to close off the two routes between Castle Hill and Points 175 and 165 being used by the Germans to reinforce the defenders in the town. The Allied commanders felt they were on the brink of success as grim fighting continued through 21 March. However, the defenders were resolute, and the attack on Point 445 to block the German reinforcement route had narrowly failed, whilst in the town, Allied gains were measured only house by house.
On 23 March Alexander met with his commanders. A range of opinions was expressed as to the possibility of victory, but it was evident that the New Zealand and Indian Divisions were exhausted. Freyberg was convinced that the attack could not continue, so he called it off. The German 1st Parachute Division had taken a mauling but had held.
Aftermath The next three days were spent stabilising the front, extracting the isolated Gurkhas from Hangman's Hill, and the detachment from the New Zealand 24th Battalion, which had held Point 202 in similar isolation. The Allied line was reorganised, with the exhausted 4th Indian Division and 2nd New Zealand Division withdrawn and replaced, respectively, in the mountains by the British 78th Division and in the town by the British 1st Guards Brigade. The New Zealand Corps headquarters was dissolved on 26 March and control was assumed by the British XIII Corps. In their time on the Cassino front line, the 4th Indian Division had lost 3,000 men and the 2nd New Zealand Division 1,600 men killed, missing, or wounded.
The German defenders too had paid a heavy price. The German XIV Corps War Diary for 23 March noted that the battalions in the front line had strengths varying between 40 and 120 men.
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23 February 2024 WFRA NEWSLETTER Volume 15 Issue 08
OBITUARY
23472653 Pte Frederick George ‘Freddie’ COSGROVE Freddie Cosgrove was born in London in 1938. After a childhood spent in children's homes he was called up for his National Service in Nottingham in April 1956 . After completing basic training, he was posted to 1st Battalion The Sherwood Foresters in Dempsey Barracks , Sennelager in Germany in January 1957. In January of the following year he returned with the battalion to the UK and then deployed with them to Malaya in June 1958. The battalion were stationed in Johore Bahru and carried out anti-terrorist patrols in the jungle for what turned out to be the last 2 years of the 12 year Malayan Emergency. Although Freddie had signed on for a 3rd years service, his time was up in May 1959 , when he returned to UK and was discharged. After discharge he lived in Wrotham in Kent and worked variously, on the railways and as a long distance lorry driver. He met Bridie, his future wife, in 1974 and they married in 1983. In 2004 he and Bridie returned to Nottingham where he is remembered by all as a loyal member of the Malayan Veterans Branch of WFRA and a fanatical Nottingham Forest Supporter.
His funeral will take place at 1400 hrs on Tuesday 5 March at Wilford Hill Cemetery, NG2 7FE, after which Bridie has invited mourners to the Willow Tree on Rufford Way, NG2 6LS.
OBITUARY It is with great sadness that we let you know that 4987704 Cpl Graeme ‘Sweeney’ Walter TODD, of Derby, died on 18 February 2024 aged 92. Sweeney was born in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire where his father was serving with the RAF and in 1945 followed his brother (Donald Todd) into The Sherwood Foresters. Sweeney was a bandsman with the 2nd Bn and 1st Bn and played the clarinet and saxophone and spent his career in the UK and Germany. He left the army in 1958. He then worked for United Biscuits working his way up to Area Manager, Sweeney married his wife, Anne, in 1955 and they had a son David.
Messages of condolence can be sent to annetodd5@ntlworld.com.
Funeral details to follow.
OBITUARY 24578183 Pte William ‘Luc’ George LUCAS It is with great sadness that we inform you that 24578183 Pte William ‘Luc’ George LUCAS of Barry, Wales, died on 21 January 2024, aged 60. Luc was born in Banbury and later moved to Derbyshire and he joined 1 WFR on 21 August 1980. He served with C Coy in the UK, including NI, Canada, Germany, the USA and Cyprus. He was awarded the GSM NI and UN Cyprus medals. Luc left the Army on 8 February 1989. Following his discharge, he met his, then, wife and they subsequently moved to Wales and had 3 children; Jessica, Charlie and Elliot. Luc retrained as Day Service Support Worker, working for the Vale of Glamorgan Council, with people with challenging behaviour and disabilities, a job that he excelled at with his quite, thoughtful and supportive manner. His funeral took place on 16 February in Barry, Wales.
Messages of condolence can be sent to his ex-wife (with whom he remained on good terms) at alisonlucas69@yahoo.com If anyone would like a copy of his Celebration of Life please contact newsletter@stand-firm-strike-hard.org.uk
001 CYPRUS UN 60th ANNIVERSARY
The Cyprus High Commission to the UK intends to host an event to mark the 60 years of UNFICYP’s presence in Cyprus and to honour the British veterans who were the first to serve in Cyprus. The High Commissioner is seeking to find members of Sherwood Foresters who were in Cyprus in 1964 but who only for those participated in UNFICYP Mission, not in any other tour or mission in Cyprus. The High Commissioner is keen to make contact with any of our veterans who fit this bill, or their descendants. It is proposed that the event will be held on the afternoon of Thursday 21 March 2024 at the Cyprus High Commission in London. Due to limited capacity, please note that invitations will be shared at a later stage.
Any Sherwood Foresters, or their descendants, who meet this criteria, are asked to contact the Assistant Regimental Secretary cindy.clark247@mod.gov.uk
002 MUSEUM OF THE MERCIAN REGIMENT - WFR COLLECTION
SHERWOOD FORESTERS ALE
Did you know that we have teamed up with Lincoln Green Brewing Company and now have a Sherwood Foresters Beer?
We receive a portion of the profits which will go towards the future of the museum. The beer can be purchased online or via Lincoln Green Brewing on facebook, Company outlets.
Click on the link below to find out more!
Sherwood Foresters Golden Ale
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
We are looking for volunteers to help with an upcoming project! Could you give a day or a half and help us with our website?
Click on the link below to find out more!
Museum Volunteers
FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH
Do you have a Sherwood Forester in your family and would like to know more about their service?
Then get in touch with our Research Service below to find out how to get started.
Family Research Service
ANZIO LANDINGS - 80TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION
New display alert! To commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the landings at Anzio, we now have a temporary exhibition on the Foresters role at the landings. See it now in the gallery Nottingham Castle on facebook until June 28th. For details about how to visit our gallery, then check out our website.
https://www.stand-firm-strike-hard.org.uk/museum-galleries-derby-nottingham
003 GHELUVELT PARK GARDENING CLUB
There will be a tree planting session on Friday 23 February 10:30hrs with Gheluvelt Park Gardening Club if anyone is interested in coming along to help. Meet by Sons of Rest Pavilion. Tools will be supplied.
004 BUDDY BUDDY GROUP
The Buddy Buddy group, based in Chesterfield, is a Tri-Service, multi cap badge group for veterans (although serving personnel are invited to come along), both male and female, of all ages. It is an informal group that meets once a month with a guest speaker and food. Although not a formal support group, it applies the Buddy Buddy system that was used whilst serving; looking out for each other. The group meets on the last Thursday of each month from 1800 – 2000 hours. Full details are on the flyer and you can also contact Oli Barnes (ex WFR/Mercian) at olibarnes@spireitestrust.org.uk
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16 February 2024 WFRA NEWSLETTER Volume 15 Issue 07
001 BUDDY BUDDY GROUP The Buddy Buddy group, based in Chesterfield, is a Tri-Service, multi cap badge group for veterans (although serving personnel are invited to come along), both male and female, of all ages. It is an informal group that meets once a month with a guest speaker and food. Although not a formal support group, it applies the Buddy Buddy system that was used whilst serving; looking out for each other. The group meets on the last Thursday of each month from 1800 – 2000 hours. Full details are on the flyer and you can also contact Oli Barnes (ex WFR/Mercian) at olibarnes@spireitestrust.org.uk
002 FRIENDS OF THE MERCIAN REGIMENT MUSEUM - WORCESTER
A reminder to you all about the next talk which will take place on Saturday, 17th February: Venue: Lyppard Grange Community Centre, Ankerage Green, Worcester WR4 0DZ. Time 13.30 for 14.00 start. Nursing in the Falklands War on HMHS Uganda by Liz Omerod Liz’s talk is from a personal perspective and includes the practicalities of turning a cruise liner into a hospital ship. It is illustrated with slides including those “before and after” views of the clinical and other areas. Liz joined the QARNNS in May 1972 at the Royal Naval Hospital in Gosport. She worked in several different clinical areas including 3 years in the A & E department. Following a 6 month course in Cardiac nursing in London, Liz returned to the joint Intensive & Coronary Care Unit at the Naval Hospital in Plymouth. Following service on the Uganda where she was Senior Nursing Officer on Intensive Care Liz returned to the Plymouth Naval hospital to complete her commission. Leaving QARNNS in 1985 she became a Palliative Clinical Nurse Specialist with the Macmillan Service in Cornwall and later in West Berkshire. Now retired Liz has done some work as a volunteer at the hospice in Hereford and has delivered many talks on her experiences in the Falklands. Friends £3 Non-Friends - £5 Light refreshments included. Feel free to invite family and friends along.
003 WORCESTERSHIRE ARMED FORCES COVENANT NEWS
HM Armed Forces Veteran Card Thousands of Armed Forces veterans can now apply for their HM Armed Forces Veteran Card following the launch of the service. The Veteran Card service is being delivered by the Ministry of Defence together with the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, as part of the work to improve the support available for veterans. Thousands who left the forces before December 2018 are eligible to apply. The cards confirm veteran status and simplify access to support services.Veterans card rolled out to streamline access to services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Veteran Friendly Practice Accreditation Scheme have your say
To help persuade more practices to sign up, the Royal College of General Practitioners, NHS England and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs are working together to increase awareness of veterans’ healthcare needs and any challenges that prevent people who’ve served in the Armed Forces from seeking help from their GP. If you have served in the Armed Forces and live in England, they would be grateful if you could spare 10 minutes to fill in this online survey. LGBT veteran restorative measures from the Government next steps The Ministry of Defence and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs jointly commissioned an independent review to better understand the impacts and implications of the policy that homosexuality was incompatible with life in HM Armed Forces between 1967 and 2000. The government acknowledges that the historic policy prohibiting homosexuality in the armed forces was unacceptable and wrong. The government published the formal response to the review on 13 December 2023. If you, or someone you know, was impacted by the ban on LGBT personnel in the UK’s Armed Forces between 1967 and 2000, you/they may be eligible for restorative measures. Detailed information, eligibility and guidance for all the non-financial restorative measures available can be found in LGBT veterans: Apply for restorative measures. Alternatively, please contact Fighting with Pride, the LGBT veteran charity who are here to support LGBT+ Veterans, serving personnel and their families, particularly those who were affected by the ‘gay ban’, ultimately lifted on 12th January 2000. Armed Forces Covenant annual report 2023 published Published in December last year, the report sets out major achievements of the Armed Forces Covenant and the Strategy for our Veterans, and highlights remaining challenges and new commitments. Download the report NHS England expands mental health support for veterans The NHS is rolling out an expanded mental health support service for Armed Forces veterans, as a survey found that more than half find it difficult to speak up about mental health issues. They have launched a new campaign to highlight its Op COURAGE service, which now includes enhanced specialist support for addictions. Latest available data shows that from April-November 2023, more than 4,500 referrals were made to the NHS service which provides specialist care, support and treatment to former Armed Forces personnel, reservists, and service leavers with mental health and wellbeing issues. Read the full article Veteran Friendly Framework for care providers Designed for use in residential settings for older people, the Veteran Friendly Framework helps care providers to offer appropriate support for the thousands of veterans living in care homes across England. Find out more
004 ORAL HISTORIES OF AFGHANISTAN
RHQ have received the following message I am a teacher and part-time PhD student. My PhD focuses on the lived experiences of British troops in Afghanistan, and therefore I would like to have the voices of veterans front and centre, so as to best document their experiences during the conflict. To this end, oral history is a core part of my research. I have so far interviewed around half a dozen veterans, but I would love to speak to more!n More information can be found on the information sheet and if anyone would like to participate, please contact Simon Olsen on simon.t.olsen@stu.mmu.ac.uk Participant Information Sheet
The British Army in Helmand: Leadership, Culture and Doctrine in Afghanistan, 2006-11 1. Invitation to research My name is Simon Olsen, and I am a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University. My project examines the nature of British Army leadership and culture in Afghanistan, 2006-11, and impact of this on the personnel who served there. I would like to invite you to take part.
2. Why have I been invited? You have been invited, because of your affiliation with the British Army, or wider armed forces. This may be because you served during the above dates, or because of your affiliation with regimental museums, and/or military charities. There have been no distinctions made between criteria such as gender, ethnicity, age, or health.
3. Do I have to take part? It is up to you to decide. We will describe the study and go through the information sheet, which we will give to you. We will then ask you to sign a consent form to show you agreed to take part. You are free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason.
4. What will I be asked to do? If you wish to participate in this project, please ensure that you meet the inclusion criteria below: Ex-service personnel (not current member of British Armed Forces) Served in at least one tour of Afghanistan between 2006-11 Ability to speak good English You can express by email to 08448308@stu.mmu.ac.uk stating your service branch, with dates in years that you were deployed to Afghanistan and in what role, and dates in years that you were part of the British Armed Forces. All data will be kept and handled by the lead researcher (Simon Olsen) and will be anonymised. Following this, you may then be invited to a virtual interview, that would allow a greater discussion of your experiences in the military and your thoughts on the British Army in Afghanistan. It is expected that most participants would only be asked to conduct one or two interviews, however some participants may wish to discuss issues in further detail and additional sessions can be organised as appropriate, face to face if requested. Interviews would be conducted virtually (MS Teams/Zoom), but any additional sessions could be conducted in a location that you feel comfortable and safe in, and that is logistically appropriate for all parties. This may include rooms on the university campus, but external sites could be selected based on their suitability, such as regimental museums. If a face-to-face interview is conducted, a member of the project’s supervisory team would also likely be present. Should you be invited for an interview, you would give consent by signing the consent form which would be sent out to you. Capacity to give consent is assumed. You would also have the opportunity to ask the lead researcher (Simon Olsen) any questions you may have about the project’s purpose, aims, or methodology. During interviews, recordings will be used to create an electronic record of your experiences. These audio files would be stored in anonymous files in the university’s secure storage system, until transcripts of them are produced, at which point audio recordings would be destroyed. This information would not be shared outside of the research purposes. This means that they would not be uploaded to any archive or shared with external organisations without your explicit consent. Where this information may be used in publications, it could not be included without your explicit consent. All data is stored in the university’s secure storage system.
5. Are there any risks if I participate? There is no direct physical risk to participants from this study. You may feel uncomfortable discussing your experience of service with a civilian, or for the purposes of research. This could result in distressing or upsetting recollections depending on the nature of your individual experience. Such instances will be treated with the sensitivity and respect they warrant.
6. Are there any advantages if I participate? There are no material rewards on offer for participation in the project. However, the research project would contribute to a growing field of academia that investigates the nature of Britain’s collective combat experience, and analyses how well the British Army prepares its service members for deployment. Participation, therefore, comes with a moral benefit, in helping this research project understand the true nature of combat in Afghanistan, which will in turn engender greater understanding and dialogue between civilian and military spheres.
7. What will happen to the samples that I give? If you wish to donate any artefacts of historical value to the research project, they can be photographed or copied and given back to you. Such artefacts may include photographs, or written resources. There is no expectation or need for any biological samples being collected from participants.
8. What will happen with the data I provide? When you agree to participate in this research, we will collect from you personally-identifiable information. The Manchester Metropolitan University (‘the University’) is the Data Controller in respect of this research and any personal data that you provide as a research participant. The University is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and manages personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the University’s Data Protection Policy. We collect personal data as part of this research (such as name, telephone numbers or age). As a public authority acting in the public interest, we rely upon the ‘public task’ lawful basis. When we collect special category data (such as medical information or ethnicity) we rely upon the research and archiving purposes in the public interest lawful basis. Your rights to access, change or move your information are limited, as we need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. If you withdraw from the study, we will keep the information about you that we have already obtained, and this may still be used if you have participated in interviews.
We will not share your personal data collected in this form with any third parties. If your data is shared this will be under the terms of a Research Collaboration Agreement which defines use, and agrees confidentiality and information security provisions. It is the University’s policy to only publish anonymous data unless you have given your explicit written consent to be identified in the research. The University never sells personal data to third parties. We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to achieve the research purpose. The estimated project completion date is July 2026. Your data will be stored for one year and three months after this date, in case resubmission are necessary. Data will be handled by the principal investigator (Simon Olsen) and will be anonymous and stored safely and securely. No personal or identifiable data would be used in the research. Once interviews are complete, participants will be referred to in anonymous terms such as ‘veteran’, to protect your identity. Findings will be securely stored via the university’s secure storage system. Furthermore, the data will be purged from the university’s secure storage facility within three months of the project’s conclusion. For further information about use of your personal data and your data protection rights please see the University’s Data Protection Pages (https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/data-protection/). What will happen to the results of the research study? The results of the study will be used to inform conclusions about the nature of conflict in Afghanistan and the human cost of the war. This research project seeks to investigate the relationship between the British Army’s culture, leadership and doctrine, and how these the lived experience of those serving in Afghanistan. As such, findings will be used in the formulation of the project’s final monologue, with the ambition of using some of this research to inform future articles for publication.
Who has reviewed this research project? The supervisory team has reviewed this research project. This team consists of Dr Stuart Aveyard and Dr Jason Crowley. Furthermore, the project has passed the initial review stage, having been scrutinised by other academics. Finally, the project has been approved by the university’s ethics committee. Who do I contact if I have concerns about this study or I wish to complain? For any general questions about the research project, please contact me in the first instance, at 08448308@stu.mmu.ac.uk. I can also be contacted by post at, Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Campus, Manchester, M15 6EB. The principal supervisor for this project is Dr Stuart Aveyard, who can be reached at s.aveyard@mmu.ac.uk, 0161 247 1721, Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Campus, Manchester, M15 6EB. The Faculty Ethics contact is artsandhumanitiesethics@mmu.ac.uk, or at Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Campus, Manchester, M15 6EB. The Microsoft Teams Privacy Statement can be found here https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement . If you have any concerns regarding the personal data collected from you, our Data Protection Officer can be contacted using the legal@mmu.ac.uk e-mail address, by calling 0161 247 3331 or in writing to: Data Protection Officer, Legal Services, All Saints Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M15 6BH. You also have a right to lodge a complaint in respect of the processing of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office as the supervisory authority. Please see: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.
THANK YOU FOR CONSIDERING PARTICIPATING IN THIS PROJECT
005 THE FRIENDSHIP HUB
A Veterans coffee morning is being held on the third Wednesday of each month at The Friendship Hub, Grassmere Road, Long Eaton, NG10 4DZ.
Next meeting Wednesday 21 February 10.30hrs. All veterans are welcome.
006 THE BATTLE OF MONTE CASSINO - PART 2
Operation Avenger Background
Freyberg, with U.S. VI Corps under heavy threat at Anzio, was under equal pressure tolaunch a relieving action at Cassino. Once again, therefore, the battle began without the attackers being fully prepared. As well, Corps HQ did not fully appreciate the difficulty in getting the 4th Indian Infantry Division into place in the mountains and supplying them on the ridges and valleys north of Cassino. This was evidenced in the writings of Maj. Gen. Howard Kippenberger, commander of New Zealand's 2nd Division, after the war.
Maj. Gen. Howard Kippenberger said after the battle “Poor Dimoline, acting commander of 4th Indian Division was having a dreadful time getting his division into position. I never really appreciated the difficulties until I went over the ground after the war”.
Freyberg's plan was a continuation of the first battle, an attack from the north along the mountain ridges and an attack from the southeast along the railway line, and to capture the railway station across the Rapido less than 1 mile south of Cassino town. Success would squeeze out Cassino town and open up the Liri valley. Freyberg had informed his superiors that he estimated that the offensive had a 50 percent chance of success, given the circumstances.
Destruction of the abbey
Allied officers increasingly focused on the abbey of Monte Cassino, which was believed to be used as a German artillery observation point. The abbey was presumed to have prevented the breach of the 'Gustav Line'.
The British press and C. L. Sulzberger of The New York Times wrote about German observation posts and artillery positions inside the abbey, but their claims were not substantiated. The Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, accompanied by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, personally observed during a fly over "a radio mast ... German uniforms hanging on a clothesline in the abbey courtyard and machine gun emplacements 50 yards from the abbey walls." U.S. II Corps commander Geoffrey Keyes flew over the monastery several times and reported to Fifth Army G2 that he had not seen evidence of German troops in the abbey. When informed of others' claims of having seen enemy troops there, he stated, "They've been looking so long they're seeing things." US Army Artillery Pilot Spotter Hughes Rudd saw German positions at the Abbey.
Kippenberger of the New Zealand Corps HQ believed that the monastery was probably being used as the Germans' main vantage point for artillery spotting because of its strategic location, but there was no clear evidence. From a military point of view, whether the monastery was being used as an observation point was immaterial.
If not occupied today, it might be tomorrow and it did not appear it would be difficult for the enemy to bring reserves into it during an attack or for troops to take shelter there if driven from positions outside. It was impossible to ask troops to storm a hill surmounted by an intact building such as this, capable of sheltering several hundred infantry in perfect security from shellfire and ready at the critical moment to emerge and counter attack. Undamaged, it was a perfect shelter but with its narrow windows and level profiles an unsatisfactory fighting position. Smashed by bombing it was a jagged heap of broken masonry and debris open to effective fire from guns, mortars and strafing planes as well as being a death trap if bombed again. On the whole I thought it would be more useful to the Germans if we left it unbombed.
Major General Francis Tuker, whose 4th Indian Division would have the task of attacking Monastery Hill, had made his own appraisal of the situation. In the absence of detailed intelligence at Fifth Army HQ, he found a book dated 1879 in a Naples bookshop that gave details of the construction of the abbey. In his memorandum to Freyberg, he concluded that regardless of whether the monastery was currently occupied by the Germans, it should be demolished to prevent its effective occupation. He also pointed out that with 150 foot high walls made of masonry at least 10 feet thick, there were no practical means for field engineers to deal with the place and that bombing with "blockbuster" bombs would be the only solution since 1,000 pound bombs would be "next to useless". Tuker stated that he could only attack if the garrison was weakened by continuous bombing by air and artillery.
On 11 February 1944, the acting commander of the 4th Indian Division, Brigadier General Dimoline, requested a bombing raid. Tuker reiterated his case again from a hospital bed in Caserta, where he was suffering a severe attack of a recurrent tropical fever. Freyberg transmitted his request on 12 February. The request, however, was greatly expanded by air force planners and probably supported by Eaker and Devers, who sought to use the opportunity to showcase the abilities of U.S. Army air power to support ground operations. Clark and his chief of staff, Major General Alfred Gruenther, remained unconvinced of the "military necessity". When handing over the U.S. II Corps position to the New Zealand Corps, Brigadier General J.A. Butler, deputy commander of the U.S. 34th Division, said, "I don't know, but I don't believe the enemy is in the convent. All the fire has been from the slopes of the hill below the wall". Finally, Clark, "who did not want the monastery bombed", pinned down the Commander in Chief Allied Armies in Italy, Alexander, to take the responsibility.
The bombing mission in the morning of 15 February 1944 involved 142 Boeing B17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, followed by 47 North American B25 Mitchell and 40 Martin B26 Marauder medium bombers. In all, they dropped 1,150 tonnes of high explosives and incendiary bombs on the abbey, reducing the entire summit of Monte Cassino to a smoking mass of rubble. Between bomb runs, the II Corps artillery pounded the mountain. Many Allied soldiers and war correspondents cheered as they observed the spectacle. Eaker and Devers watched. Clark and Gruenther refused to be on the scene and stayed at their headquarters. That same afternoon and the next day, an aggressive follow up of artillery and a raid by 59 fighter bombers wreaked further destruction. The German positions on Point 593 above and behind the monastery were untouched.
Damningly, the air raid had not been coordinated with ground commands, and an immediate infantry follow-up failed to materialise. It’s timing had been driven by the Air Force, which viewed it as a separate operation, considering the weather and requirements on other fronts and theatres without reference to ground forces. Many of the troops had only taken over their positions from II Corps two days previously, and besides the difficulties in the mountains, preparations in the valley had also been held up by difficulties in supplying the newly installed troops with sufficient material for a full scale assault because of incessantly foul weather, flooding, and waterlogged ground. As a result, Indian troops on the Snake's Head were taken by surprise, while the New Zealand Corps was two days away from being ready to launch their main assault.
After the bombing Monte Cassino is in ruins. Pope Pius XII was silent after the bombing; however, his Cardinal Secretary of State, Luigi Maglione, bluntly stated to the senior U.S. diplomat to the Vatican, Harold Tittmann, that the bombing was "a colossal blunder a piece of a gross stupidity".
From every investigation that followed since the event, it is certain that the only people killed in the monastery by the bombing were 230 Italian civilians seeking refuge in the abbey. There is no evidence that the bombs dropped on the Monte Cassino monastery that day killed any German troops. However, given the imprecision of bombing in those days it was estimated that only 10 percent of the bombs from the heavy bombers, bombing from a high altitude, hit the monastery, bombs did fall elsewhere and kill German and Allied troops alike, although that would have been unintended. Indeed, sixteen bombs hit the Fifth Army compound at Presenzano, 17 miles from Monte Cassino, and exploded only yards away from the trailer where Clark was doing paperwork at his desk.
On the day after the bombing, at first light, most of the civilians still alive fled the ruins. Only about 40 people remained, the six monks who survived in the deep vaults of the abbey; their 79 year-old abbot, Gregorio Diamare; three tenant farmer families; orphaned or abandoned children; the badly wounded; and the dying. After artillery barrages, renewed bombing, and attacks on the ridge by the 4th Indian Division, the monks decided to leave their ruined home with the others who could move at 07:30hrs on 17 February. The old abbot was leading the group down the mule path towards the Liri valley, reciting the rosary. After they arrived at a German first aid station, some of the badly wounded who had been carried by the monks were taken away in a military ambulance. After meeting with a German officer, the monks were driven to the monastery of Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino. On 18 February, the abbot met the commander of the XIV Panzer Corps, Lieutenant General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin.
Although the Germans had an agreement not to use the abbey for military purposes, following its destruction, paratroopers of the German 1st Parachute Division occupied the ruins of the abbey and turned it into a fortress and observation post, which became a serious problem for the attacking Allied forces.
Battle
On the night following the bombing, a company of the 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, serving in the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade attacked key point 593 from their position 70 yards away on Snakeshead Ridge. The assault failed, with the company sustaining 50 percent casualties.
The following night, the Royal Sussex Regiment was ordered to attack in battalion strength. There was a calamitous start. Artillery could not be used in direct support targeting point 593 because of the proximity and risk of shelling friendly troops. It was therefore planned to shell point 575, which had been providing supporting fire to the defenders of point 593.
The topography of the land meant that shells fired at 575 had to pass very low over Snakeshead Ridge, and in the event that some fell among the gathering assault companies. After reorganising, the attack went in at midnight. The fighting was brutal and often hand to hand, but the determined defence held and the Royal Sussex battalion was beaten off, once again sustaining over 50 percent casualties. Over the two nights, the Royal Sussex Regiment lost 12 out of 15 officers and 162 out of 313 men who took part in the attack.
On the night of 17 February, the main assault took place. The 4/6th Rajputana Rifles would take on the assault on Point 593 along Snakeshead Ridge with the depleted Royal Sussex Regiment held in reserve. 1/9th Gurkha Rifles were to attack Point 444. In the meantime, the 1/2nd Gurkha Rifles were to sweep across the slopes and ravines in a direct assault on the monastery. This latter was across appalling terrain, but it was hoped that the Gurkhas, so expert in mountain terrain, would succeed. This proved a faint hope. Once again, the fighting was brutal, but no progress was made and casualties were heavy. The Rajputanas lost 196 officers and men, the 1/9th Gurkhas 149 and the 1/2nd Gurkhas 96. It became clear that the attack had failed and on 18 February Dimoline and Freyberg called off the attacks on Monastery Hill.
In the other half of the main assault, the two companies from the 28th Māori Battalion from the New Zealand Division forced a crossing of the Rapido and attempted to gain the railway station in Cassino town. The intention was to create a perimeter that would allow engineers to build a causeway for armoured support. With the aid of a nearly constant smoke screen laid down by Allied artillery that obscured their location from the German batteries on Monastery Hill, the Māori were able to hold their positions for much of the day. Their isolation and lack of both armoured support and anti tank guns made for a hopeless situation, however, when an armoured counterattack by two tanks came in the afternoon on 18 February. They were ordered to pull back to the river when it became clear to headquarters that both attempts to break through would not succeed. It had been very close. The Germans had been very alarmed by the capture of the station, and from a recorded conversation between Kesselring and von Vietinghoff, they had not expected their counterattack to succeed.
After the war, regarding the second battle, Senger admitted that when he was contemplating the prospects of a renewed frontal assault on Cassino that "what I feared even more was an attack by Juin's corps with its superb Moroccan and Algerian divisions".
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09 February 2024 WFRA NEWSLETTER Volume 15 Issue 06
OBITUARY COLONEL P R HASLAM BA psc, ptsc Though there was an obituary notice for Colonel Paul Haslam in last week's Newsletter some additional detail of his career follows. Paul Haslam was granted a National Service Commission in August 1952 and then a Regular Commission in April 1954 with 2nd Bn The Sherwood Foresters. He served with the Bn in Colchester until October 1952, then Wuppertal as part of first 6 Inf Bde, moving to Celle as part of 7 Armd Bde in BAOR. On the amalgamation of the 1st and 2nd Bn The Sherwood Foresters in 1955 he served as both the Bn Intelligence Officer in Malaya from May 1958, during latter stages of the Malayan Confrontation, until the return of the battalion to UK in Jan 1960. He was then posted to the Regimental Depot as the Adjutant of 8th and subsequently 5th/8th Foresters. He then returned to the 1st Bn who were in Holywood, Co Down, N Ireland until moving to the Royal Military College of Science (RMCS) at Shrivenham for the Technical Staff Course in Dec 1963. Shrivenham was to become a familiar posting for Paul for the rest of his career. After completing the Army Staff Course at Camberley the following year, Paul was posted to Moscow as the Assistant Military Attache from 1966 until 1968. In September 1968 Paul returned to 1st Bn The Sherwood Foresters in Minden as part of 7 Armd Bde, commanding A Coy. Following amalgamation in early 1970 Paul moved to Netheravon as Coy Comd of Sp Coy in the Demonstration Battalion role. From Oct 70 to Nov 1971 he served as GSO2 AT2 in the MOD and was promoted to Lt Col in Jun 1971. He was then posted back to RMCS Shrivenham as a member of the Directing Staff. In February 1975 he became Commandant of the Infantry Trials and Development Unit at Warminster. He was promoted to Colonel in June 1977 and became the Colonel (GS) of OR1 in the MOD from Oct 1976 to April 1978, then becoming the Project Manager for Infantry Weapons MOD from May 1978 until his retirement in April 1980. On retirement Paul returned to RMCS Shrivenham as RO2 Training until August 1983. He and his wife Ann moved to Amberley in Gloucestershire but in recent years they had both moved to a Care Home in Nailsworth. The funeral will take place on Friday 23rd February at Amberley Parish Church, Stroud, Glos at 1400 hours. The wake will be at The Black Horse, Amberley. Letters of condolence should be sent to:: Mrs Ann Haslam, The Steppes Residential Care Home, Cossack Square, New Market Rd, Nailsworth, Stroud, Glos GL6 0D.
001 ORAL HISTORIES OF AFGHANISTAN
RHQ have received the following message I am a teacher and part-time PhD student. My PhD focuses on the lived experiences of British troops in Afghanistan, and therefore I would like to have the voices of veterans front and centre, so as to best document their experiences during the conflict. To this end, oral history is a core part of my research. I have so far interviewed around half a dozen veterans, but I would love to speak to more! More information can be found on the information sheet and if anyone would like to participate, please contact Simon Olsen on simon.t.olsen@stu.mmu.ac.uk Participant Information Sheet The British Army in Helmand: Leadership, Culture and Doctrine in Afghanistan, 2006-11 1. Invitation to research My name is Simon Olsen, and I am a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University. My project examines the nature of British Army leadership and culture in Afghanistan, 2006-11, and impact of this on the personnel who served there. I would like to invite you to take part. 2. Why have I been invited? You have been invited, because of your affiliation with the British Army, or wider armed forces. This may be because you served during the above dates, or because of your affiliation with regimental museums, and/or military charities. There have been no distinctions made between criteria such as gender, ethnicity, age, or health. 3. Do I have to take part? It is up to you to decide. We will describe the study and go through the information sheet, which we will give to you. We will then ask you to sign a consent form to show you agreed to take part. You are free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason. 4. What will I be asked to do? If you wish to participate in this project, please ensure that you meet the inclusion criteria below: Ex-service personnel (not current member of British Armed Forces) Served in at least one tour of Afghanistan between 2006-11
Ability to speak good English You can express by email to 08448308@stu.mmu.ac.uk stating your service branch, with dates in years that you were deployed to Afghanistan and in what role, and dates in years that you were part of the British Armed Forces. All data will be kept and handled by the lead researcher (Simon Olsen) and will be anonymised. Following this, you may then be invited to a virtual interview, that would allow a greater discussion of your experiences in the military and your thoughts on the British Army in Afghanistan. It is expected that most participants would only be asked to conduct one or two interviews, however some participants may wish to discuss issues in further detail and additional sessions can be organised as appropriate, face to face if requested. Interviews would be conducted virtually (MS Teams/Zoom), but any additional sessions could be conducted in a location that you feel comfortable and safe in, and that is logistically appropriate for all parties. This may include rooms on the university campus, but external sites could be selected based on their suitability, such as regimental museums. If a face-to-face interview is conducted, a member of the project’s supervisory team would also likely be present. Should you be invited for an interview, you would give consent by signing the consent form which would be sent out to you. Capacity to give consent is assumed. You would also have the opportunity to ask the lead researcher (Simon Olsen) any questions you may have about the project’s purpose, aims, or methodology. During interviews, recordings will be used to create an electronic record of your experiences. These audio files would be stored in anonymous files in the university’s secure storage system, until transcripts of them are produced, at which point audio recordings would be destroyed. This information would not be shared outside of the research purposes. This means that they would not be uploaded to any archive or shared with external organisations without your explicit consent. Where this information may be used in publications, it could not be included without your explicit consent. All data is stored in the university’s secure storage system. 5. Are there any risks if I participate? There is no direct physical risk to participants from this study. You may feel uncomfortable discussing your experience of service with a civilian, or for the purposes of research. This could result in distressing or upsetting recollections depending on the nature of your individual experience. Such instances will be treated with the sensitivity and respect they warrant. 6. Are there any advantages if I participate? There are no material rewards on offer for participation in the project. However, the research project would contribute to a growing field of academia that investigates the nature of Britain’s collective combat experience, and analyses how well the British Army prepares its service members for deployment. Participation, therefore, comes with a moral benefit, in helping this research project understand the true nature of combat in Afghanistan, which will in turn engender greater understanding and dialogue between civilian and military spheres. 7. What will happen to the samples that I give? If you wish to donate any artefacts of historical value to the research project, they can be photographed or copied and given back to you. Such artefacts may include photographs, or written resources. There is no expectation or need for any biological samples being collected from participants. 8. What will happen with the data I provide? When you agree to participate in this research, we will collect from you personally-identifiable information. The Manchester Metropolitan University (‘the University’) is the Data Controller in respect of this research and any personal data that you provide as a research participant. The University is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and manages personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the University’s Data Protection Policy. We collect personal data as part of this research (such as name, telephone numbers or age). As a public authority acting in the public interest, we rely upon the ‘public task’ lawful basis. When we collect special category data (such as medical information or ethnicity) we rely upon the research and archiving purposes in the public interest lawful basis.
Your rights to access, change or move your information are limited, as we need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. If you withdraw from the study, we will keep the information about you that we have already obtained, and this may still be used if you have participated in interviews. We will not share your personal data collected in this form with any third parties. If your data is shared this will be under the terms of a Research Collaboration Agreement which defines use, and agrees confidentiality and information security provisions. It is the University’s policy to only publish anonymous data unless you have given your explicit written consent to be identified in the research. The University never sells personal data to third parties. We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to achieve the research purpose. The estimated project completion date is July 2026. Your data will be stored for one year and three months after this date, in case resubmission are necessary. Data will be handled by the principal investigator (Simon Olsen) and will be anonymous and stored safely and securely. No personal or identifiable data would be used in the research. Once interviews are complete, participants will be referred to in anonymous terms such as ‘veteran’, to protect your identity. Findings will be securely stored via the university’s secure storage system. Furthermore, the data will be purged from the university’s secure storage facility within three months of the project’s conclusion. For further information about use of your personal data and your data protection rights please see the University’s Data Protection Pages (https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/data-protection/). What will happen to the results of the research study? The results of the study will be used to inform conclusions about the nature of conflict in Afghanistan and the human cost of the war. This research project seeks to investigate the relationship between the British Army’s culture, leadership and doctrine, and how these the lived experience of those serving in Afghanistan. As such, findings will be used in the formulation of the project’s final monologue, with the ambition of using some of this research to inform future articles for publication. Who has reviewed this research project? The supervisory team has reviewed this research project. This team consists of Dr Stuart Aveyard and Dr Jason Crowley. Furthermore, the project has passed the initial review stage, having been scrutinised by other academics. Finally, the project has been approved by the university’s ethics committee. Who do I contact if I have concerns about this study or I wish to complain? For any general questions about the research project, please contact me in the first instance, at 08448308@stu.mmu.ac.uk. I can also be contacted by post at, Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Campus, Manchester, M15 6EB. The principal supervisor for this project is Dr Stuart Aveyard, who can be reached at s.aveyard@mmu.ac.uk, 0161 247 1721, Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Campus, Manchester, M15 6EB. The Faculty Ethics contact is artsandhumanitiesethics@mmu.ac.uk, or at Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Campus, Manchester, M15 6EB. The Microsoft Teams Privacy Statement can be found here https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement . If you have any concerns regarding the personal data collected from you, our Data Protection Officer can be contacted using the legal@mmu.ac.uk e-mail address, by calling 0161 247 3331 or in writing to: Data Protection Officer, Legal Services, All Saints Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M15 6BH. You also have a right to lodge a complaint in respect of the processing of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office as the supervisory authority. Please see: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.
THANK YOU FOR CONSIDERING PARTICIPATING IN THIS PROJECT
002 FOREST FORCES UPDATE
Wellbeing Hubs at the City Ground Are you interested in veterans wellbeing and want to know how you can get more involved in supporting our work? We are hosting a discussion on Monday 12th February for Forest Forces participants and partner organisations to come along and share their ideas. If you would like to attend, please email claire.henson@nottinghamforest.co.uk. Coffee Morning at Long Eaton I have been sent through the following details of a veterans coffee morning - 3rd Wednesday of each month. The Friendship Hub, Grassmere Road, Long Eaton, NG10 4DZ. Next meeting 10.30 am 21st February. All veterans are welcome.
003 THE BATTLE OF MONTE CASSINO - PART 1
Battle of Monte Cassino The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome, was a series of four military assaults against German forces with the main objective of breaking through the Winter Line and facilitate an advance towards Rome. In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was anchored by German forces holding the Rapido Gari, Liri, and Garigliano valleys and several surrounding peaks and ridges. Together, these features formed the Gustav Line. Monte Cassino, an historic hilltop abbey founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, dominated the nearby town of Cassino and the entrances to the Liri and Rapido valleys. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the slopes below the abbey's walls.
Repeated artillery attacks on assaulting allied troops caused their leaders to incorrectly conclude that the abbey was being used by the Germans as an observation post, at the very least. Fears escalated, along with casualties, and despite evidence, it was marked for destruction. On 15 February 1944, Allied bombers dropped 1,400 tonnes of high explosives, causing widespread damage. Fallschirmjäger forces occupied the area and established defensive positions amid the ruins.
Between 17 January and 18 May, Monte Cassino and the Gustav Line defences were attacked on four occasions by Allied troops. On 16 May, soldiers from the Polish II Corps launched one of the final assaults on the German defensive position as part of a twenty division assault along a twenty mile front. On 18 May, a Polish flag and the British flag were raised over the ruins. Following this Allied victory, the German Senger Line collapsed on 25 May, and the German defenders were driven from their positions. The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses estimated at around 20,000 killed and wounded. The battle has been described as a Pyrrhic victory.
Background
The Allied landings in Italy in September 1943 by two Allied armies, following shortly after the Allied landings in Sicily in July, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander, the Commander in Chief of the 15th Army Group (later retitled the Allied Armies in Italy), were followed by an advance northward on two fronts, one on each side of the central mountain range forming the "spine" of Italy. On the western front, the American Fifth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, which had suffered many casualties during the main landing at Salerno in September, moved from the main base of Naples up the Italian "boot," and on the eastern front, the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, advanced up the Adriatic coast.
The progress of Clark's Fifth Army was hindered by challenging terrain, adverse weather conditions, and well prepared German defenses. The Germans were fighting from a series of prepared positions in a manner designed to inflict maximum damage, then pulling back while buying time for the construction of the Winter Line defensive positions south of the Italian capital of Rome. The original estimates that Rome would fall by October 1943 proved far too optimistic.
Although in the east the German defensive line had been breached on the Adriatic front and Ortona was captured by the 1st Canadian Division, the advance had ground to a halt with the onset of winter blizzards at the end of December, making close air support and movement in the jagged terrain impossible. The route to Rome from the east using Route 5 was thus excluded as a viable option, leaving the routes from Naples to Rome, Highways 6 and 7, as the only possibilities; Highway 7 followed along the west coast but south of Rome ran into the Pontine Marshes, which the Germans had flooded.
Highway 6 ran through the Liri valley, dominated at its south entrance by the rugged mass of Monte Cassino above the town of Cassino. Excellent observation from the peaks of several hills allowed the German defenders to detect Allied movement and direct highly accurate artillery fire, preventing any northward advance. Running across the Allied line was the fast flowing Rapido River, which rose in the central Apennine Mountains, flowed through Cassino and across the entrance to the Liri valley. There, the Liri River joined the Gari to form the Garigliano River, which continued on to the sea.
With its heavily fortified mountain defences, difficult river crossings, and valley heads flooded by the Germans, Cassino formed a linchpin of the Gustav Line, the most formidable line of the defensive positions making up the Winter Line.
In spite of its potential excellence as an observation post, because of the fourteen-century Benedictine abbey's historical significance, the German commander in Italy,
Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, ordered German units not to include it in their defensive positions and informed the Vatican and the Allies accordingly in December 1943.
Nevertheless, some Allied reconnaissance aircraft maintained they observed German troops inside the monastery. While this remains unconfirmed, it is clear that once the monastery was destroyed, it was occupied by the Germans and proved better cover for their emplacements and troops than an intact structure would have offered.
First battle
Plans and preparation First Battle: plan of attack The plan of the Fifth Army commander, Lieutenant General Clark, was for the British X Corps, under Lieutenant General Richard McCreery, on the left of a 20 mile front, to attack on 17 January 1944, across the Garigliano near the coast. The British 46th Infantry Division was to attack on the night of 19 January across the Garigliano below its junction with the Liri in support of the main attack by U.S. II Corps, under Major General Geoffrey Keyes, on their right. The main central thrust by the U.S. II Corps would commence on 20 January with the U.S. 36th Infantry Division making an assault across the swollen Gari river five miles downstream of Cassino. Simultaneously, the French Expeditionary Corps led by General Alphonse Juin would continue its "right hook" move towards Monte Cairo, the hinge to the Gustav and Hitler defensive lines. In truth, Clark did not believe there was much chance of an early breakthrough,[ but he felt that the attacks would draw German reserves away from the Rome area in time for the attack on Anzio where the U.S. VI Corps, under Major General John P. Lucas, was due to make an amphibious landing on 22 January. It was hoped that the Anzio landing, with the benefit of surprise and a rapid move inland to the Alban Hills, which command both routes 6 and 7, would so threaten the Gustav defenders' rear and supply lines that it might just unsettle the German commanders and cause them to withdraw from the Gustav Line to positions north of Rome. Whilst this would have been consistent with the German tactics of the previous three months, Allied intelligence had not understood that the strategy of fighting retreat had been for the sole purpose of providing time to prepare the Gustav line where the Germans intended to stand firm. The intelligence assessment of Allied prospects was therefore over-optimistic. The Fifth Army had only reached the Gustav Line on 15 January, having taken six weeks of heavy fighting to advance the last seven miles through the Bernhardt Line positions, during which time they had sustained 16,000 casualties. They hardly had time to prepare the new assault, let alone take the rest and reorganisation they really needed after three months of attritional fighting north from Naples. However, because the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff would only make landing craft available until early February, as they were required for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Northern France, Operation Shingle had to take place in late January with the coordinated attack on the Gustav Line some three days earlier. First assault 17 January
The first assault was made on 17 January. Near the coast, the British X Corps forced a crossing of the Garigliano followed some two days later by the British 46th Division on their right causing General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, commander of the German XIV Panzer Corps, and responsible for the Gustav defences on the south western half of the line, some serious concern as to the ability of the German 94th Infantry Division to hold the line.
Responding to Senger's concerns, Kesselring ordered the 29th and 90th Panzergrenadier Divisions from the Rome area to provide reinforcement. X Corps did not have the extra men, and the battle plan remained unchanged, but there would certainly have been time to and cancel or modify the central attack by the U.S. II Corps to make men available to force the issue in the south before the German reinforcements were able to get into position. As it happened, Fifth Army HQ failed to appreciate the frailty of the German position and the plan was left unchanged. The two divisions from Rome arrived by 21 January and stabilised the German position in the south. In one respect, however, the plan was working in that Kesselring's reserves had been drawn south. The three divisions of Lieutenant General McCreery's X Corps sustained some 4,000 casualties during the period of the first battle.
Main attack 20 January
The central thrust by the U.S. 36th Division, under Major General Fred L. Walker, commenced three hours after sunset on 20 January. The lack of time to prepare meant that the approach to the river was still hazardous due to uncleared mines and booby traps, and the highly technical business of an opposed river crossing lacked the necessary planning and rehearsal. Although a battalion of the 143rd Infantry Regiment was able to get across the Gari on the south side of San Angelo and two companies of the 141st Infantry Regiment on the north side, they were isolated for most of the time and at no time was Allied armour able to get across the river, leaving them highly vulnerable to counter attacking tanks and self propelled guns of Generalleutnant Eberhard Rodt's 15th Panzergrenadier Division. The southern group was forced back across the river by mid morning of 21 January. Keyes pressed Walker to renew the attack immediately. Once again, the two regiments attacked but with no more success against the well dug in 15th Panzergrenadier Division, the 143rd Infantry Regiment got the equivalent of two battalions across, but, once again, there was no armoured support, and they were devastated when daylight came the next day. The 141st Infantry Regiment also crossed in two battalion strength and, despite the lack of armoured support, managed to advance half a mile. However, with the coming of daylight, they too were cut down and by the evening of 22 January, the 141st Infantry Regiment had virtually ceased to exist; only 40 men made it back to the Allied lines.
The assault had been a costly failure, with the 36th Division losing 2,100 men killed, wounded and missing in 48 hours. As a result, the army's conduct of this battle became the subject of a Congressional inquiry after the war.
North of Cassino 24 January
The next attack was launched on 24 January. The U.S. II Corps, with 34th Infantry Division under Major General Charles W. Ryder spearheading the attack and French colonial troops on its right flank, launched an assault across the flooded Rapido valley north of Cassino and into the mountains behind with the intention of then wheeling to the left and attacking Monte Cassino from high ground. Whilst the task of crossing the river would be easier in that the Rapido upstream of Cassino was fordable, the flooding made movement on the approaches each side very difficult. In particular, armour could only move on paths laid with steel matting and it took eight days of bloody fighting across the waterlogged ground for 34th Division to push back General Franek's German 44th Infantry Division to establish a foothold in the mountains.
On the right, the Moroccan French troops made strategical initial progress against the German 5th Mountain Division, commanded by General Julius Ringel, gaining positions on the slopes of their key objective, Monte Cifalco. Forward units of the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division had also by passed Monte Cifalco to capture Monte Belvedere and Colle Abate. General Juin was convinced that Cassino could be bypassed and the German defences unhinged by this northerly route but his request for reserves to maintain the momentum of his advance was refused and the one available reserve regiment from 36th Division was sent to reinforce 34th Division. By 31 January the French had ground to a halt with Monte Cifalco, which had a clear view of the French and U.S. flanks and supply lines, still in German hands. The two Moroccan French divisions sustained 2,500 casualties in their struggles around Colle Belvedere.
Mountains north of Cassino First Battle: Northern Sector 24 January – 11 February 1944 It became the task of the U.S. 34th Division, which had been held in reserve and unused to fight southward along the linked hilltops towards the intersecting ridge on the south end of which was Monastery Hill. They could then break through down into the Liri valley behind the Gustav Line defences. It was very tough going the mountains were rocky, strewn with boulders and cut by ravines and gullies. Digging foxholes on the rocky ground was out of the question and each feature was exposed to fire from surrounding high points. The ravines were no better since the gorse growing there, far from giving cover, had been sown with mines, booby-traps and hidden barbed wire by the defenders. The Germans had had three months to prepare their defensive positions using dynamite and to stockpile ammunition and stores. There was no natural shelter, and the weather was wet and freezing cold.
By early February, American infantry had captured a strategic point near the hamlet of San Onofrio, less than 1 mile from the abbey and by 7 February a battalion had reached Point 445, a round topped hill immediately below the monastery and no more than 400 yards away. An American squad managed a reconnaissance right up against the cliff like abbey walls, with the monks observing German and American patrols exchanging fire. However, attempts to take Monte Cassino were broken by overwhelming machine gun fire from the slopes below the monastery. Despite their fierce fighting, the 34th Division never managed to take the final redoubts on Hill 593 held by the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Regiment, part of the 1st Parachute Division, the dominating point of the ridge to the monastery.
Aftermath
On 11 February, after a final unsuccessful three day assault on Monastery Hill and Cassino town, the Americans were withdrawn. U.S. II Corps, after two and a half weeks of battle, was worn out. The performance of the 34th Division in the mountains is considered to rank as one of the finest feats of arms carried out by any soldiers during the war. In return they sustained losses of about 80 per cent in the Infantry battalions, some 2,200 casualties.
At the height of the battle in the first days of February von Senger und Etterlin had moved the 90th Division from the Garigliano front to the north of Cassino and had been so alarmed at the rate of attrition, he had "mustered all the weight of my authority to request that the Battle of Cassino should be broken off and that we should occupy a quite new line, a position, in fact, north of the Anzio bridgehead". Kesselring refused the request. At the crucial moment von Senger was able to throw in the 71st Infantry Division whilst leaving the 15th Panzergrenadier Division whom they had been due to relieve in place.
During the battle, there had been occasions when with more astute use of reserves, promising positions might have been turned into decisive moves. Some historians suggest this failure to capitalise on initial success could be put down to Clark's lack of experience. However, it is more likely that he just had too much to do, being responsible for both the Cassino and Anzio offensives. This view is supported by the inability of Major General Lucian Truscott, commanding the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, as related below, to get hold of him for discussions at a vital juncture of the Anzio breakout at the time of the fourth Cassino battle. Whilst General Alexander, Commander in Chief of the AAI, chose to have Cassino and Anzio under a single army commander and splitting the Gustav Line front between the U.S. Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese, Kesselring chose to create a separate 14th Army under General Eberhard von Mackensen to fight at Anzio whilst leaving the Gustav Line in the sole hands of General Heinrich von Vietinghoff's 10th Army.
The withdrawn American units were replaced by the New Zealand Corps, 2nd New Zealand and 4th Indian Divisions, commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Freyberg, from the Eighth Army on the Adriatic front.
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02 February 2024 WFRA NEWSLETTER Volume 15 Issue 05
OBITUARY It is with great sadness that we report the death of Colonel Paul Haslam 424040, Late WFR, born April 16th 1930 in Mapperley, Nottingham died peacefully on January 22nd 2024. He first reported for duty at Catterick Garrison on October 22, 1951. In1952, he became a second lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters and was posted to join the second battalion reforming at Colchester. From there, his military journey took him to Wuppertal in the Ruhr, where he served as an assistant adjutant. After a stint at the School of Infantry Small Arms wing at Hythe, he was posted to the Regimental depot at Derby. His next posting was to the 1st Battalion in Sennelager, where he took on the role of battalion Intelligence Officer, overseeing liaison with Special Branch and higher formations. His military service included postings in Malaya, Northern Ireland, and Germany. He completed a course at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham, commanded the Infantry Trials and Development Unit in Warminster and also served as assistant military attaché to the British Embassy in the USSR from 1966 to 1968. He later worked at the MOD as part of the Procurement Executive. Having left the army in 1980 he was appointed as Retired Officer Grade two (RO2) at the Royal Military College, at Shrivenham, administering training courses. His funeral will take place on Friday 23rd February at Amberley Parish Church, Stroud, Glos at 1400 hours. The wake will be at The Black Horse, Amberley.
001 MERCIAN REGIMENT NEWSLETTER
THE MERCIAN REGIMENT QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Q4 2023 VIEW OUR NEWSLETTER ONLINE PRINT-FRIENDLY NEWSLETTER
The next edition of the Mercian Regimental Quarterly Newsletter is now available for viewing. Our newsletter covers recent events over a three month period, with a look ahead on what is coming up within the regiment; including the battalions, the museums & associations. The newsletter is hosted online, which means that you can view it on your smartphone or tablet while on-the-go. A print-friendly version is also available above. We would like to extend a thank you to all who are involved with the MERCIAN regiment for your continued support.
Stand Firm, Strike Hard.
Kind regards, RHQ Mercian
002 FOREST FORCES UPDATE Breakfast Clubs at the City Ground
Upcoming dates for the Forest Forces Breakfast Club at the City Ground will be shared in the coming weeks when the venues are confirmed. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for guest speakers or activities you might want to see at future events, please let us know. Wellbeing Hubs at the City Ground Are you interested in veterans wellbeing and want to know how you can get more involved in supporting our work? We are hosting a discussion on Monday 12th February for Forest Forces participants and partner organisations to come along and share their ideas. If you would like to attend, please email claire.henson@nottinghamforest.co.uk. Bench at Ver Sur Mer The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry Association (Arnold Branch) Committee has been tasked by its members to secure a bench and dedicate it to the fallen of the Regiment in the Normandy campaign. To support, please see the link to their Go Fund Me page below.Go Fund Me
003 BRANCH MEETING
The next meeting of Long Eaton and West Notts Branch will be the monthly social on Wednesday 7 February at The Last Post Public House 6A Chilwell Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1AA 19.30hrs start. All are welcome to attend.
004 JOB OPPORTUNITY
The East Midlands RFCA are recruiting for an Administrative Officer (AO) at Derbyshire ACF, the vacancy notice and job description are attached. Interested candidates should email a full CV and supporting statement detailing their suitability for the role, to em-offman@rfca.mod.uk .
Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday 9 February 2024. Short listed candidates will be notified as soon as possible after the 9 February and called for an interview at Derbyshire ACF during week commencing the 19 February 2024
The job description can be found by following the link below.
https://eastmidlandsrfca.co.uk/about-us/vacancy-at-east-midlands-rfca/
005 ROMEO AND JULIET – 9 FEBRUARY 2024The Town Mayor of Newark will be hosting a charity performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Town Hall, Newark on 9 February 2024. All are invited to attend. Details are on the flyer below.
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VETERANS SUPPORT
The following are available to support veterans and their families who may be experiencing mental health difficulties;
Forcesline Tel: 0800 731 4880 (between 9am and 5pm Monday-Friday)
Combat Stress (24 hours)
Veterans and their families; Tel: 0800 138 1619
Serving personnel and their families; Tel: 0800 323 4444
Samaritans (24 hours); Tel: 116 123
M A DACK
for Executive Committee