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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please read our Family History FAQ's
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry? There are:1332 items tagged 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry 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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Pte. Brian John Lambert MM 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry Pte.Brian Lambert served with the 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Alan Holyoake 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry My gramps, Alan Holyoake fought for the Wessex Wyverns, 4th Somerset Light Infantry. He wore a golden two legged dragon symbol on his uniform and had the Jellalabad badge. He said they were feared by the Germans who called them Churchill's Dragon men. He was one of 15 men that survived from his company of 100.
He didn't talk a lot about the war but a few of his memories included being burnt when his sergeant threw petrol on an open fire inside a house where they escaped by jumping through a window. He remembers a man they called Ginger who asked why everyone was on the floor while they were being 'shelled to blazes' and they said you'll learn after a while. Ginger later refused to go with my gramps on a mission to find stranded troops where 'the trees turned into splinters'. On another occasion Ginger ran away with a magazine of ammunition while the shells were falling he was seen being escorted by guards to a prison and said 'you were right about the shells', poor bloke. My gramps said the prisoners there were 'well drilled and done up to the nines' and had to polish rusty tins that were left out in the rain every night. They shaved in the reflections on the walls.
He said the Americans had more food for breakfast than the Brits had for a whole day and they were very laid back and confident. He once found some Americans in a house with all the lights on playing cards and one gave him a whole pack of tobacco.
One time his company moved too quickly into position and were attacked by the Dorset Regiment!
He also remembered finding Germans sleeping in their foxholes and his sergeant had the sorry task of shooting them there as it was 'us or them'. He was sad about this as he knew that the Germans were just the same as he was and so young.
Gramps never forgot how at the end of the war near Bremen all the soldiers fired their guns when they heard it was over. An old gentleman in a top hat emerged from the rubble and invited the soldiers for some coffee, an old lady said 'no more bomb bombs'. All the German soldiers got up and walked back to their villages they were from forming a long queue.
After that he ended up helping to liberate Belsen which absolutely never spoke of as it was too awful.
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Lt. Harold Fitzherbert Aston Barnes 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry (d.3rd Oct 1944) Lt. Harold Barnes parachuted into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden, and is buried in Oosterbeek Cemetery in Arnhem.
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Pte. Leonard Kitchener Cleaves 4th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry Dad, Leonard Cleaves was wounded twice,19th of August 1944 in North West Europe and 18th of April 1945 in Western Europe. The second time I was told he and others were pinned down in an orchard by a sniper. I remember the huge scar he showed me on his arm.
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Cpl. Frederick Allen Wilkinson 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry Frederick Wilkinson served with the 4th Somerset Light Infantry.
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Pte. James Alfred Hooley 4th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry Grandad Jim Hooley served with the 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry in North West Europe from the 18th June 1944 to 2nd December 1945 under the 43rd Wessex Division, known as the Fighting Wessex Wyverns.
He never really spoke about his time in the war (as did most I guess) everything we know has been through online research. A great book to read is the History of the 4th Bn. The Somerset Light Infantry, the book details the operations they were involved in across Europe.
If anyone has any old photos or info on the 4th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry during WW2 I would love to hear it.
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Pte. John James Coyle 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry My father Jack Coyle volunteered for service on the 25th of June 1943 at Acton Recruitment Centre London age 18 years 1 month. He joined reserves on 5th of August 43 then transferred to 2nd Bat. Royal Fusiliers on the 16th of September 1943 for training as a Bren Gunner, until 10th of July 1944.
He was posted to North West Europe Reinforcement Holding Unit on the 11th of July 1944. RHU was assigned to 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry on the 14th of July. He took in all action involving the 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry from the 14th of July until he was wounded on the 30th at a village called Bricquessard.
He suffered a gunshot wound to the upper arm and while lying wounded under a hedgerow received wounds to the head from shrapnel from a landmine triggered by another soldier. Evacuated to a Field Hospital later on the 30th of July, he was then transferred back to Hospital in England on 2nd of August to recuperate. Wounds were so severe he was invalided out of the Army on 26th of December 1945.
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