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211100 Pte. Daniel Teahan British Army 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers from:Tralee County Kerry My oldest uncle Daniel Teahan was a real character, hard as nails but a gentle soul and generous to a fault, we loved listening to his 'war stories' as children of which he had an endless supply.
He joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1939, he lived in the Irish Republic in county Kerry but wanted to fight and joined the Fusiliers because 'it was the right thing to do'
He underwent rigorous training and his unit - the 1st battalion - was sent to France as part of the BEF, his battalion took part in the rearguard actions that formed part of the fighting retreat to Dunkirk, he said that the Fusiliers were a regular army unit and gave the Germans a 'right seeing to', including holding up a panzer division for 3 days (which to my amazement we later found out was true) eventually getting off from the beaches of Dunkirk with the whole unit intact in orderly fashion and with all their small arms on board, something he was very proud of, as he said despite some heavy casualties they never once lost their discipline and that the Germans had never broken through their line
He was then sent to N Africa fought with the desert rats, an odd aside is how often he mentioned the artillery, he hated the enemy artillery but loved his own, he said that many a time in North Africa when the enemy was attacking in numbers they would have all the infantry divisions guns open up on them completely stopping their attack before they even reached their trenches
Then on into Italy with hard fighting, he said in fact that Italy was where they lost most men with his company being especially hard hit, and eventually ended up in Austria after they had taken part in the surrender of German forces, where as we understand he stayed for some years on garrison duty, we think in Austria but maybe Germany too
It was only later that we realised the true scale of his service, he had fought through the entire war in a famous frontline fighting unit that probably took part in as many battles as any unit throughout the war
He was wounded twice, once from shell splinters by being mortared but returned to his unit both times, he said the worst part of the war was the dread of not being returned to the Fusiliers but to a different battalion
After the war he joined London Transport as a bus conductor and worked at Chalk Farm garage right up until his retirement, he never married having become too set in ways he claimed during his long military service
He had a long happy retirement dying at the ripe old age of 90, his body was taken back to Ireland and he was buried in the Teahan family plot, the coffin carried to his grave by his nephews - including yours truly
We were very proud of him and that pride has only increased as I have taken the time to read what he really underwent, the battles and casualties suffered by his unit, something he never once complained about he always said they had to accept casualties 'and just get on with it', in fact most of his stories were of a humorous nature recalling the various escapades he and his pals got into, it would take up too much space to recount them all, so I will tell just one
In North Africa when his unit was in close proximity to the enemy, they used to undertake nightly patrols, he was out on one with some other soldiers including an officer, they had rifles and the officer a pistol which was tied to his wrist by a piece of rope.
As luck would have it they ran straight into an enemy patrol with shots being fired and the officer telling them to get behind a wall about a hundred yards away, they got behind that but there was no sign of the officer and it being pitch black with no sign of movement or the enemy they thought he had copped it, only for him to come crawling up behind the wall a few minutes later
It seems he had dropped his pistol and the rope had got tangled between his legs sending him sprawling, they all thought this incredibly funny apparently, and having had quite a laugh about it went on their way without further trouble. RIP Uncle Dan |
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