Firstly We would like to thank everyone who has been in touch to provide first hand accounts or stories of their relatives, photographs, maps and scans of newspaper clippings. We're currently working through all of your submissions and we plan to add as much of your content to the site as we can in the coming months. If you have artifacts, note books, scans of photographs or journal transcriptions that they feel would be at home on the 51st Highland Division website, please contact - youcanhelp@51hd.co.uk
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In this latest set of updates we have a number of new accounts and extracts relating to the 128th Field Regiment (Royal Artillery), the 7th Argylls and the 61st Anti-Tank Regiment (Royal Artillery) in addition to an extension to Jack Kidd's account of his POW experience. (more details below)
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The first account is from Captain J T Lang who served with 128th (H) Field Battery RA (TA) in El Alamein. Captain Lang's account is entitled El Alamein - A Gunner's View and details the movements and action from 128 Field Reg. from 1st September 1942 through to early November of that year.
We also have a short history of the 128th Field Regiment written by John Lang. The account was originally entitled "The story of an artillery Regiment of the 51st Highland Division" and was privately printed in 1989.
Another extract relating to the 128th Field Regiment is taken from the Regiment records relating to Battles for Gerbini, Sferro Hills, Catania Plain and Biancavilla.
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We have added a new extract detailing the 61st (Highland) Anti-Tank Regiment (Royal Artillery) during the Sicily Campaign at Sferro through July 1943.
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There are also two separate extracts taken from 'The History of the 7th Argylls' by Captain Ian C Cameron.
This first reference is a description of the 7th Argylls in the Battle of Wadi Akarit in March/April 1943 during the North Africa Campaign.
The second extract details the attack on St. Michels Gestel and Vught during Operation Colin which was part of the Low Countries Campaign in October 1944.
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Another addition to the site is an extension to the accounts from Jack Kidd in our POW Experience section which was part of the last site update. This new account is of the arduous Thousand Mile March that the POWs were forced to endure in late 1944 as Germany attempted to relentlessly move its prisoners from the advancing Russian forces and the prospect of liberation.
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Last, but not least, we have added a short note listing the various Commanders of the 51st Highland Division during the post war years between 1946 and 1967.
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More photographs, artifacts, extracts and accounts, in addition to new content from our website historian, Brigadier (Ret'd) C S Grant OBE, will be added to the site in the coming months so please do check back here to see what is new.
Many thanks, once again, for all of your stories and photographs - please do keep them coming.
Ian Livingstone
Website Administrator
On behalf of the he trustees of the 51st Highland Division Trust Fund
& the Highland Division Ross Bequest Fund