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- 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry



   2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry saw action in France with the BEF and the withdrawal through Dunkirk. The 2nd DLI, fought with the 14th Army in Burma, seeing action at Kohima, Donbaik and Mandalay.

 

15th May 1940 In Action

24th May 1940 In Action

25th May 1940 In Action

26th May 1940 New Positions

27th May 1940 Hard Fighting

30th of June 1940 New command

6th Mar 1943 Reliefs

8th Mar 1943 Provocation

9th Mar 1943 Provocation

11th Mar 1943 Bombing

22nd Mar 1943 Reliefs

25th Mar 1943 Reliefs

31st Mar 1943 Positions Handed Over

3rd Apr 1944 In Action

5th Apr 1944 Enemy Attacks

8th Apr 1944 Enemy Attacks

8th Apr 1944 Advance

9th Apr 1944 Enemy Attacks

10th Apr 1944 Enemy Attacks

11th Apr 1944 Enemy Attacks

13th Apr 1944 Hard Fighting

13th Apr 1944 Bitter Fighting

14th Apr 1944 Attack

14th Apr 1944 Break Through

16th Apr 1944 Enemy Attacks

17th Apr 1944 Holding Position

18th Apr 1944 Attack Made

19th Apr 1944 Reliefs

20th Apr 1944 Reliefs

27th Dec 1944 In Action

2nd Jan 1945 On the March

11th Jan 1945 Air Raid

21st of March 1945 Summary of events  location map

22nd of March 1945 Summary of events  location map

7th of November 1945 ADM Instruction No 3

15th of November 1945 Travel

16th of November 1945 Training


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Ablett Ronald Victor John. Pte. (d.27 May 1940)
  • Annand VC. Richard Wallace. Capt.
  • Annand VC Richard Wallace. Capt.
  • Beeden Kenneth Wallace. Pte. (d.27th Apr 1944)
  • Carpenter James Frederick. Pte. (d.31st May 1940)
  • Davis George Henry. Pte. (d.27th May 1940)
  • Davis Thomas Richardson. L/Sgt.
  • Fraser Joseph. Pte. (d.4th May 1944)
  • Friberg James Hansen. Pte.
  • Graves George. Pte (d.26th May - 1st June 1940)
  • Greenwood John Allan.
  • Harris Thomas J.. Pte. (d.17th February 1946)
  • Hazell Norman Eric.
  • Honeybell Charles Victor. L/Cpl.
  • Hood John. Pte. (d.23rd April 1944)
  • Hunter Joseph Lakeman. Pte. (d.17 Jun 1940)
  • Krieger Gerald. Capt.
  • Lax John.
  • Mullen Thomas. Pte. (d.25th Apr 1944)
  • Parker David Edward. Pte
  • Rafferty CdeG. William. RSM.
  • Ralston Thomas. Cpl
  • Ross Matthew. Pte. (d.23rd Apr 1944)
  • Sharp Arthur Clifford. Pte. (d.26th May - 4th June 1940)
  • Shimmin William Ernest. Pte. (d.24th April 1944 )
  • Simpson James Henry. Pte. (d.23rd Apr 1944)
  • Stevenson Benjamin. Pte. (d.28th April 1944)
  • Stokes Benjamin. Pte. (d.9th March 1943)
  • Strickley Richard. Pte. (d.25th April 1944)
  • Thompson Allan. Pte. (d.26th May 1940)

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry from other sources.



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Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry?


There are:1355 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Durham 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.


Capt. Richard Wallace Annand VC. 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry

Richard Annand was the first soldier of the Second World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross, in Belgium in May 1940.

His obituary was published in the Times in December 2004:-

The Action in which Dick Annand fought on May 15, 1940, was the first to result in the award of the Victoria Cross to a soldier in the Second World War. As a second lieutenant with no previous operational experience he displayed resolution and personal courage of the highest order. When the battle was over, his first thought was to get his wounded batman to safety. Belgian neutrality in the early months of the war left the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army with an open flank from the northern end of the Maginot Line to the Channel coast. But, forewarned of a German attack through the Low Countries by a Wehrmacht plan which had fallen into Belgian hands and been handed over to the French, the Allied armies were ready to cross the frontier and occupy a defensive line along the River Dyle, east of Brussels, as soon as Belgian neutrality was breached. Germany launched her attack on May 10, 1940.

Annand was a platoon commander with 2nd Battalion The Durham Light Infantry in the 2nd Division sent to man positions on the Dyle, near the village of La Tombe. The ground on the west bank could hardly have been less suitable; trees and undergrowth made observation of the approaches to the opposite bank difficult and, to the rear, open ground rose steeply to the village. Annand was with D Company covering the road bridge over the Dyle, across which another company of the Durhams had been forced to withdraw before the advancing German Army on the afternoon of May 14, when the bridge was blown.

At 11.00 the next day the enemy launched a violent attack to cover the move of a bridging party into the sunken riverbed. Annand led a group of men from his platoon in a counterattack and, when their small-arms ammunition was exhausted, went forward alone to throw grenades from the edge of the ruined bridge on to the enemy bridging party working below, inflicting some 20 casualties. The enemy was thus prevented from crossing the river in continued fighting, but the situation remained grave, and the company commander had been badly wounded. During the evening of the same day, the enemy launched another attack under cover of intense mortar and machinegun fire. Annand again went forward armed with all the grenades he could carry and attacked the German troops attempting to repair the bridge.

Reporting on the action afterwards, the company sergeant-major said: “They came with a vengeance and were socked with a vengeance. They seemed determined to get that bridge but Jerry could not move old D Company. For two hours it was hell let loose, then they gave up and withdrew.”

But elsewhere the Allied line had broken and at 23.00 the Durhams’ commanding officer gave the order to withdraw as part of the general move back to the line of the River Scheldt. As Annand led the survivors of his platoon away from the bridge in the early hours of May 16, he discovered that his batman, Private Joseph Hunter, from Sunderland, had been wounded in the head and legs and was unable to walk.

Despite his own wounds sustained in the day’s fighting, he found a wheelbarrow, lifted Hunter into it and wheeled him to the rear until their way was barred by a fallen tree. Leaving Hunter in an empty trench he set out to find help but collapsed from exhaustion and loss of blood shortly after finding his company HQ position abandoned.

Hunter was captured by the advancing Germans and sent to a Dutch hospital, but he died of his wounds a month later. The award of the Victoria Cross to Second Lieutenant Annand was gazetted on August 23, 1940. This followed the announcement of the same award to another officer and a Guardsman, but for actions later in the withdrawal of the BEF to Dunkirk.

Richard “Dickie” Wallace Annand was born in South Shields in 1914, the son of Lieutenant-Commander Wallace Moir Annand, who was killed with the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division at Gallipoli in June 1915. He was educated at Pocklington School in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He joined the National Provincial Bank in 1933 and became a midshipman in the Tyne Division of the RNVR in the same year.

He applied for a commission in the Royal Navy but was told he was over the age limit for application, so he joined the Army. After a period with the Supplementary Reserve he joined the 2nd Durham Light Infantry.

Although he recovered from wounds received at La Tombe, he was severely deafened in the action and was never again fit for active service. He was invalided out of the army in 1948 and thereafter devoted his life to helping the disabled, taking particular interest in the welfare of the deaf.

He was personnel officer of the Finchdale Abbey Training Centre for the Disabled near Durham until his retirement at the age of 65. The Borough of South Shields had made him an honorary freeman in 1940, and he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Co Durham in 1956. He was president of the Durham branch of the Light Infantry Club until 1998.

He married Shirley Sefton Brittain Osborne in November 1940 and had cause to rescue her from drowning almost 40 years later, in 1979. The couple had attended dinner aboard the frigate HMS Bacchante anchored in the Tyne as guests of her captain. Turning from the foot of the gang plank on leaving to admire the ship, Mrs Annand fell off the quayside into the river. Without hesitation, Captain Annand plunged in and supported her until both were hauled to safety by the ship’s crew. Neither was much the worse for the incident, although Mrs Annand said her fur coat would never be quite the same.

His wife survives him. There were no children. His death leaves only 13 surviving VC holders.




Pte. Joseph Lakeman Hunter 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry (d.17 Jun 1940)

Joseph Hunter was the batman of Captain Annand, he was injured on the 15th of May 1940 and rescued by Captain Annand, an action for which the first Victoria Cross of the Second World War was awarded. Hunter was captured by the enemy and transferred to a Dutch Hospital where he died from his injuries. He was 25 years old.




Pte. William Ernest Shimmin 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry (d.24th April 1944 )

Billy Shimmin was only 19 when he died.

Paul Atherton



Pte. Kenneth Wallace Beeden 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry (d.27th Apr 1944)

Kenneth Beeden died in Burma during the Battle of Kohima.

SC



Pte. James Frederick Carpenter 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry (d.31st May 1940)

James Carpenter, joined the Durham Light Infantry and went to France. He fought and died in the BEF as rearguard at St. Venant aged just 20, between 27th of May 1940 and 31st of May 1940. His father, my great uncle, also named James Frederick Carpenter, was badly wounded in WW1 and died 1923 due to his wounds.

David Alburey



Pte. James Henry Simpson 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry (d.23rd Apr 1944)

Jimmy Simpson was killed on Garrison Hill tennis courts in Burma on the 23rd April 1944 aged 21 years. This is the only information I have.




Pte. James Hansen Friberg 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry

My father, James Friberg, was captured in 1940 at Dunkirk. He spent 5 years as a POW. He died in 1996.

William Patton Friberg



L/Sgt. Thomas Richardson Davis 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry

My grandfather, Lance Sgt Thomas Davis, was captured on the 27th of May 1940 after fierce fighting around the village of St Venant in Northern France. He fought alongside his younger brother, George Henry, who unfortunately was killed during that same action. I believe they were both in either B or D Company, 2nd DLI, tasked with defending the western approach to St Venant against a Panzer regiment.

Thomas reported in a letter home that he and George were swimming, when George disappeared. They had retreated northwards under heavy fire from the Panzers and had reached the Canal de la Lys. The bridges were under heavy fire, so some men tried to swim across the canal. George didn't make it, either shot in the water or drowning due to his heavy pack and exhaustion. George's remains when re-interred in the St Venant cemetery showed no signs of gunshot wounds. Thomas survived the swim, but was presumably captured as he tried to get out of the water. Further details are scant, but Thomas ended up in Stalag 383 at Hohenfels.

Geoff Dickson



Pte. Thomas J. Harris 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry (d.17th February 1946)

Tom Harris was spoken about in hushed tones by my family when I was young as his parents, my Great Uncle Tom and Aunt Jessie, had taken his death so hard. I now know that he died at 24 years of age just after the end of the war and was buried in Bangalore, India. I am aiming to visit him there.

Susan Robinson



Pte. Allan Thompson 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry (d.26th May 1940)

Allan Thompson died of wounds at St Venant. He is remembered on the Dunkirk Memorial.

Ray Plowman









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